Jen Jovan Art Musings and Random Thoughts

Home

12/9/2019

"Home" - mixed media on cradled aquabord, 24" x 18" x 1.5". Ready to hang (back has been pre-wired for hanging). Available here and at Artfinder.

A departure piece this week, inspired by a stunning photograph by poet Mary W. Cox.

photo by Mary W. Cox

The value contrast and composition of Cox's photo immediately called me to abstraction. I wanted a nod to the image, but mostly the stark darks and lights, lines and hidden textures.

I sat with the final painting as I picked up a book, and wouldn't you know, there it was:

..it's as if someone is calling you, ''Come home, my child, don't run anymore. Come home to yourself. Come home to life'" - How To Sit - Thich Nhat Hanh

Home

I've been contemplating the idea of home - the feeling even the word itself conjures. Nhat Hanh invites us to come home each time we sit, each time we breathe, each time we are present to the wonders of life.

But the word home evokes different images, emotions and responses in each of us. A place, a time, a person, an ideal. Cox's photo has us peeking into what appears to be an abandoned home, yet the light lifts the image and makes it hopeful.

And then there is David Byrne....whose lyrics often defy explanation, but whose snappy tunes shine a lifting light in a nod to the inspiration photo for this painting:

Home, is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there

Take a listen. I'd love to know - what does home conjure for you, dear reader?

12 Comments

Christopher R.

12/9/2019 11:42:21 am

To me, it means you and it means me dear painter.

jen

12/9/2019 11:44:55 am

Christopher!!! Yes, sweet human. xoxoxoxoxo

Carol Edan link

12/9/2019 11:45:41 am

Love this piece! The monochromatic palette, the geometrical shapes and of course the mystery of it all. Thanks for the introduction to Thich Nhat Hanh and the music of David Byrne!
Home is my safe space where ever I am!

12/9/2019 11:58:03 am

Carol! Thank you. This piece intrigues me...as does the concept of home (I love that you carry your safe space with you wherever you are!) Is it possible you don't know David Byrne? oooooh now you are in for a real TREAT! xo

Trina

12/9/2019 12:45:57 pm

Home to me is a safe zone. More often than not it’s a person not a olace for me. To be at home with someone where the walls can fall down and you do not have to pre think every word or sentence. My person is my home. 💕

12/9/2019 01:28:21 pm

Trina!!!! We are kindred spirits - it is the same for me. "Where the walls can fall down...my person is my home." Absolutely gorgeous words, lady. xo

Carl Stoveland

12/9/2019 01:47:16 pm

Love the painting! Love it even more listening to one of my favorite Talking Heads tunes!
Home is anywhere and anytime that I am with My wife, my partner in crime for 30+ years, Wendy. She is my touchstone and makes all things possible.

12/9/2019 01:56:55 pm

Carl! Thank you! And YES to the Talking Heads!

You and Wendy are such a bright light in the world...I love your unabashed adoration of each other, and this repeated theme that home is a person....thank you for sharing!

Dotty Seiter link

12/9/2019 02:37:03 pm

Jen—striking, show-stopping contrasts and textures! WHOA. Especially captivating are the monochramtic color palette and the contrast of a couple of sharp straight edges juxtaposed with many softnesses.

Home: pure presence and awareness

12/9/2019 04:19:24 pm

Dotty! Thank you, lady! Wowee! Your comments have been added to my pockets of happiness. :)

And home - you and Nhat Hanh are cut from the same cloth!

Mary W. Cox

12/9/2019 03:26:10 pm

Jen--I am still smiling at the wonder you've made from my photo! This is a piece I wrote five years ago for a Forward Movement "daybook"--it's rather long for a comment, but I don't think I could say anything better about "home."

Home

“How can you stand living in Miami--aren’t you just scared to death?” exclaimed my parents’ neighbor.
It was the mid-1980s, the time of Miami Vice and the TIME magazine cover that proclaimed, “Paradise Lost.”
“No,” I responded firmly, explaining that as in any large city there were parts of town we knew to avoid, and that yes, we did lock our doors. But I realized that I was offended: How dare she malign my home?
Then I thought, “But this is home, too.” My daughter and I were visiting my parents, and we were standing in the living room of the house where I grew up, in the town where I was born.
One of the compelling themes in scripture is the search for home, from Adam and Eve banished from the garden; to Abraham called by God to leave his birthplace; to the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness on their way to the land promised to them; to the Christ with “no place to lay his head,” who promised us an eternal home in the house of his Father--and ours--where there are “many rooms.”
That moment in my parents’ living room, when I realized that “home” for me meant at least two places, was an invitation to begin looking for “home” in other locations, too. Home includes not only the places where I’ve lived, but also places I regularly visit and places I may have visited on only one occasion that resonates in memory. I have found home in days with friends and moments with strangers, in work, in play, in sorrow and in joy.
Those “many rooms” Jesus promised are right here in this life, too. Look around. God says, “You’re home.”

12/9/2019 04:23:51 pm

Mary!!! "Look around. God says, "You're home." Love that. Sounds like a line from a Hafiz poem, or from a buddhist monk or from Mark Nepo. It feels universal. Your writing makes crystal clear how humans have always searched for "home", and how it can be many different things, even simultaneously. :)

Thanks again for allowing me the use of your excellent photo!

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