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Wonder and Grief

4/23/2022

8 Comments

 
"Wonder and Grief" - mixed media on cradled wood panel, 8 x 8 x .75.  Ready to hang.   Available here and at Artfinder.


Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.

This is how the heart makes a duet of
wonder and grief.  

from "Adrift" by Mark Nepo


​I am one of the very, very lucky ones.

Nearing 60 years old, and I am able to (and do) wander and hike and witness some of the most beautiful places, in the company of an extraordinary human, and then repeat that experience again and again.  Sometimes, it just leaves me in a puddle.
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Wonder and Grief
Nepo's poem goes on:

In the very center, under
it all, what we have that no one can take
away and all that we’ve lost face each other.
It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured
by a holiness that exists inside everything.
I am so sad and everything is beautiful.


When all that I've lost (in nearly six decades, in my case) meets all that I have (which is more than I ever imagined), I catch my breath.  There is a holiness, an unmistakable sacredness, to this.  Wonder and grief, in a beautiful duet, leaving me smiling and brimming with tears.

Here are some of the recent gems in the realm of overwhelming beauty:
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About the art:  beginning with a panel covered in black gesso, mixing a limited palette of colors and applying them with rubber wedge, paper towel, chopstick and brush.  Allowing the paint to move and dictate its direction, resisting the desire to drop more color than a small piece can handle.  Finishing with colored pencil applied with a very loose, non-writing grip to keep the marks organic.
8 Comments
Carol Edan link
4/24/2022 03:40:41 am

Nepo always amazes me. Had to read several times to really understand. Love your abstract! Your journeys are amazing!

Reply
lola (jen)
4/27/2022 02:55:42 pm

Carol! Hooray! Nepo is a wonder...and thank you!

Reply
Dotty Seiter link
4/24/2022 03:48:39 pm

yes yes yes yes yes

You had me at the title.

And then you brought the title to life in your post with both language and paint.

yes yes yes yes yes

wonder and grief. that is where i live.

Reply
lola (jen)
4/27/2022 02:56:12 pm

Dotty! Kindred spirit, I feel you and hug you fiercely. xoxoxo

Reply
Dotty Seiter link
5/3/2022 06:50:16 pm

I'm reading Susan Cain's brand new book: Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. I think of you often as I read. Read it if you have not yet!

You've read her other book, yes? Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

lola (jen)
5/5/2022 03:35:38 pm

I've read Quiet! but not Bittersweet. I will add it to the list! Thank you!

Reply
Carl Stoveland
6/3/2022 04:29:16 pm

So well put and it amazing that we can grasp both ideas of loss and thankfulness at the same time. The more the superficial gets worn away what you are left with is the culmination of the sadness and the wonder and yearning for more.

Reply
lola (jen)
6/3/2022 04:45:46 pm

Carl! Thank you for understanding this duality....it's hard, but good. :)

Reply



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Here's the blue wild, where
tiny dreamers ride beasts, speak
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(by poet Mary W. Cox)
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