Went to an art show today with dozens of exhibitors. Huge oil paintings of contorted faces, swirls of acrylics with strings and words and musical notes, pulsating sculptures lit from within, metal contraptions, quasi-furniture, costumes, feathers on constructed wings….and then, amidst the decorated, playful noise, there it was. Respite for my soul. Something different. I looked thru a red painted room into the room behind it, felt drawn in like a moth to flame, my heart already smiling. Who was it that was able to see soul so clearly? Eyes painted on canvas with a depth greater than most living dare to share, secret colors, emotions that dripped and swirled. One canvas in particular I couldn’t peel myself from for minutes, staring like a child at her first Santa Claus. Awe. Wonder….Disbelief.
A man approached me.
‘Did you paint these,’ I said, my hands clasped in worship.
He beamed. He could tell my eyes saw what his did.
‘This?’ I said pointing to the painting I loved most of all.
He nodded.
‘Will you tell me about it?’ I said with longing.
For what seemed like seconds for it could never have lasted long enough, he told me the story of my favorite painting. He spent 3 months listening to one song over and over again. Not any other. Just the one. For 3 full months. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto. And then, when it was time, he stopped. He reached for his paints. And he created what he felt.
‘There is the melody,’ he said as he pointed, ‘and there, that’s the music in the background that elevates the melody. And the silence, that was the most difficult for me. Its easy for a musician to add silence but for a painter, it something different, something else entirely. There, there is the silence. Can you see it?’
‘And what is the sphere there, near the bottom?’ I asked.
‘The spirit. That’s Bach’s spirit.’
‘And the woman? Who is she?’
‘She is….'
Would that we could all spend the time seeing, feeling, creating from our souls, listening to that which moves us, to that which brings us closer to the sacred sweetness we unconsciously avoid. I know I am a richer human being because Edgardo did. Now its just taking his wisdom and making it my own.
2 comments:
This is so beautiful Brynne! You are both very lucky to have connected with one another. I know as an artist myself, it is an amazing feeling to know that you have touched someone with something that you have made. When I used to teach painting at the college, I would always give an assignment where the student had to make a painting to music and document the process. They would display it for the class while the music they used, was playing. It is my favorite assignment to give because most of the students never knew the power music had (or even listened to it). I find for myself, I am hyper aware of what I am listening to in the studio and I sometimes play with it. Like if I am making birds, I listen to a playlist I made of songs about birds... etc,..
Anyway, l loved ready your post. Thanks!
OoO...LOVE your words, dear Kristin!! And what a great assignment! I want to take your class!! When I am writing about a particular character, I, too, love to have music open up that character's world even wider for me. Music can be soo powerful...especially when we make ourselves vulnerable to it! Sometimes I almost feel like a magic carpet has whisked me away to other worlds, do you?? Maybe the art we create when we are in those realms, lets them live on in some sacred way?? What JOY! Thank you for sharing your words, insights, beauty!
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