Wonder and Grief

"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.

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.