Dreams and Maps of Memory

"Dreams and Maps of Memory" - mixed media on cradled wood panel, 24" x 18" x 1".  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

This week's painting took a little side road into the peculiar.  It happens now and again when my heart is wide open and my inner critic and director are banished to the sidewalk.  Let's find out what she's whispering...

"The deepest place on Earth is not a physical place, but the stillness we enter at the bottom of our pain, at the bottom of our fear and worry."  MARK NEPO

I imagine you have been to this place, dear reader.  The place from which there is nowhere to go except to sit still and feel.   Something about fall - shortening days, dying blooms, chilly nights - acts like a high-speed elevator to this place, dredging up memories and ghosts of feelings; maps of where we once were.

In the stillness of this deep place, Nepo says, "too tired to deny that there's nowhere else to go" we find the spaciousness of joy.

Dreams and Maps of Memory

This place help us grow both softer and stronger, says Nepo.  Holding these opposing concepts in my two hands, I see the truth of it.  As in the painting, strength and softness can (and must) co-exist for us to be ourselves in the world.  Lifting the mask, unfiltered, knowing we are strong enough to be soft, and soft enough to feel the joy in everything.