- Published on
Living Openly on the Edge
"Living Openly on the Edge" - mixed media on repurposed wood panel, 12" x 12" x .75". Ready to hang (Sides are painted; no need to frame. Hanging wire is attached) Available here and at Artfinder.
We are nothing but shores
laying ourselves before the
clear depth of all that is,
letting it wash over us.
In this, we are forever
translators, not through
our minds or by how we
conjugate verbs, but by
living openly on the edge.
- Mark Nepo, Drinking From the River of Light
The studio has become a mountain, a forest, the sky. Boards strewn about with landscapes - mountain-scapes, forest-scapes, rock-scapes - all the things my mind continues to see long after the hike is over.
We are nothing but shores
laying ourselves before the
clear depth of all that is,
letting it wash over us.
In this, we are forever
translators, not through
our minds or by how we
conjugate verbs, but by
living openly on the edge.
- Mark Nepo, Drinking From the River of Light
The studio has become a mountain, a forest, the sky. Boards strewn about with landscapes - mountain-scapes, forest-scapes, rock-scapes - all the things my mind continues to see long after the hike is over.
On a recent day-trip to Cape Horn in the gorge, a hop over a barrier fence led to the edge of a cliff at the top of a mountain. A place I wouldn't normally go (this girl has a bit of a thing with heights) and yet there we were. Standing, then sitting. Staying. There - at the edge of all that is.
Breathing in, I am the mountain. Breathing out, the mountain is me. And so I become the shore, high above the waterline, able to feel the clear depth wash over me.
About the art: using watered gesso and a rubber wedge to carve "rocks" into a piece of repurposed wood. Allowing the random patterns to present opportunities for further definition, and allowing the natural wood grain to peek through and become the striations in the "rocks". Resisting the urge to overly delineate one shape from another- to allow the painting to live on the edge between abstraction and realism.
8 Comments
I’m so inspired by all your hiking and what you are getting from it and of course the work it is inspiring.
Carl! Thank you so much! It is clearly inspiring me...a much needed mojo infusion! The rains arrive this week, so I am already planning for how to continue these adventures through the winter. :)
Socked in with rain this week in Florida too. Time fir me to get my paints out and start putting the residency down in paint. I’ll head back to the swamps when the rains let up.
Get out your paints, Mr. Stoveland! WOOOHOO! Rain has a purpose...
Jen, thanks for inviting me to hop over a barrier fence and aim for the edge of all that is. whoo. I was thinking my day would be tamer.
Dotty! Thanks for being willing to fence-hop! No need to have a tame Monday when you can have all that is!!! xo
Wow! Wouldn't recognize this as a "Jen" painting! I can feel the abyss! I too suffer from heights! Love the bits of scribbles! Yes, live on the edge!
Carol! An unrecognizable Jen painting! Woot! That's a great comment. :) Heights suffering - I am determined to conquer it. Which means pursuing the edge!
