Monday, February 23, 2009

Philosophizing after a Monday in the mountains


Today was a "sitting" day for me at the Timberline Gallery in Oakhurst, California. It was rainy all day, dark and quiet with not a lot of visitors. Still, the shift (10 AM to 4 PM) went by quickly because I had things to do and I also had a lot of new pieces to study. That can occupy a lot of time for those of us who are part of the gallery  (as we study and enjoy new work bimonthly at each gallery change) and for our visitors.

On another note (but a somewhat similar one), I love today's quote about art, taken from the bottom of my blog. Stella Adler said: "Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."  Sometimes life does beat us down, for whatever reason, and enjoying art or creating it lifts us back up again. Illness, depression, poverty, crime, loneliness, and natural disasters--these are but a few of the things that quickly come to mind that beat us down and verge on stealing our souls. Even at the lowest times, looking at something beautiful or putting our heart into creating a small piece of art or crafting an object or piece of clothing can bring us some measure of satisfaction and peace and reassure us that our soul is undamaged. 

Perhaps I should have added "doing taxes" to the list of what beats us down because that's what faces us this week. And it's not just taxes, but getting all of our paperwork in order. That includes my art-related paperwork, so in the upcoming days I will be happy to remember that I spent most of last week soulfully creating new paintings as I endure the stressful moments to come.

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