I was telling daughter yesterday that she probably sees more of the real, the complete, me than anyone except my dearest. "More than son1 and son2?" she asked. I said I wasn't sure why, but yes. Then it struck me that it might have to do with gender, and the fact that I have always felt more relaxed and able to expose more of my heart to girls and women.
The kind of painting I long to do comes from a fantastic peaceful place in the core of my heart. It's a long journey there from the outside world I have to live in every day, and it takes a long time to get there - too long to go most evenings after work. Or so I've thought.
But recent correspondence with a new online friend, who is also an artist, has pointed me in a new direction. She (yes, once again it's the ladies who "get" it the way I need to hear it) suggested that I have this inner world tightly contained and protected in an inner box, walled off for safety from the outside world. So I'm caged there, too. I have to turn this inside out, and put work inside the box, and let the rest of me rove free. I'm learning this, living with the idea, feeling it sink deeper and deeper into me, until one day I think it will turn me over and outside in (right side out). Then the painting will be easier to do, because the glee will be in the garden instead of in a box in the back of a closet, and I'll be the gentler soul I long to be. Then my inner peaceable kingdom will be my outer reality.And with this post and the last post (part 1) complete, it's time to go back to the world of A Summer Day.
>>>> Appendix de Grenouille #40 <<<<
Feelings are hard to express directly. Sometimes our hearts require poetry, or some picture. Perhaps at other times they are carried best by a simple sound.au revoir,
Grenouille
6 comments:
"A Summer Day" sounds good and has me patiently waiting to see what's next...visualizing that space you need to expand...
don't work too hard, remember, there is more to life than the 9 to 5,6 or 7pm!
I totally agree with Grenouille's sentiment, once again. When I was giving birth, I sang the whole time, simple, wordless music.
It's strange, though, that cats' meows don't express the same as their leaps. I guess we all have an expression that is most "us." Grenouille's body posture seems to speak volumes of his candor, curiosity, and charm.
Linda - I'm trying to put work in the box. I get flashes of insight on how to do this...
Some-myrrh - Le Grenouille is pleased to have your agreement - he admires your style. And I agree that his pose seems to speak of openness. The word I most think of for him is "Frank." Which is almost too silly, but it's true.
Grenouille is quite wise.
But why put the work into a box? Why compartmentalize? Why restrict? Unless the box itself is the work.
DivaJood - I mean putting my day-job into a box. I have to be this other person (and extrovert!) to do my work well, and it wipes me out. And the stress tends to get into everything else. So the suggestion was that rather than keeping my sweet inner dreams all protected and boxed up inside (how I've handled it most of my life) I should box up the work, and let the dreams walk abroad. I like the notion - it makes a lot of sense to me. I can't DO it yet, but I'm grappling with it.
Steve, I mean it. Why compartmentalize anything? Bring it all out into the light. I've grappled with this myself for years - working at a day job and then being too exhausted to paint - until recently when I realized that I can bring art into my day job and my job into art.
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