Here is a collection of some more photos of the beautiful California that I live in. It is truly a wonderful part of the world to live in. Most people only get to visit.
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In his book “The Everyday Work of Art, Awakening the Extraordinary” Eric Booth opens Chapter 1 with this…
Wow, what a great hook for an opening paragraph. I just put this book on my “Wish List”. I already have over a dozen books on my “to-be-read” bookshelf that I have already purchased. In my daily search for the Beautiful, I have been reading a more poetry, watching the long shadows move along the ground, looking at back-lit leaves on spring trees and gazing at post-dusk satellites that float overhead in star strewn space. Watch out for the Beautiful! You will welcome the surprise it brings. Here is a short poem by my (I-never-met-the-man-but-I-miss-him-dearly) friend John O’Donohue…
So, what are you reading or seeing that inspires you to be watchful for the Beautiful? We should never mistake glamor for beauty. All that glitters is not gold. Some of the most beautiful moments in life can be the most difficult to look at. Think of the messiness of birth… the broken water, the blood, the crying, the after-birth, but all is forgotten once the newborn baby is in your arms. As tears well up in your eyes and you see the face of your child first time, you have looked at a matchless beauty that is both very present and one that comes from eternity. I believe that Beauty is very much tied into the notion that when we see Beauty, we see the face of God for a few fleeting moments. If you can look into the eyes of a drunk on the side of the road with this in mind, you may be able to see beyond the skin and into his soul… into eternity. There is a deeper connection that we have with all of humanity that present within all of us. Jesus asked us to see him in those who are least amongst us. We are to look at people and even some situations, not how they are, but how they could be. I am always on the lookout for the Beautiful. I can sometimes be very distracted by it as well – It might be a simple brushstroke on a fine Monet painting, or the indention of fingers into the nude form of a woman on a marble Bernini sculpture, or even the simple swaying of 30 foot long strands of ivy along the wall of the freeway, moving with the wind of passing traffic – until the traffic suddenly stalls in front of me, and I smash into the BMW that has stopped in traffic Luckily for me, the dark, thick amber liquid I could see pouring down her windshield was not blood from her head as I feared, it was her caramel latte. I thought of sending her a $20 Starbucks card, but decided it would be in best to leave it alone and let the insurance companies work out the details.
Beauty can be found in the oddest places. If you have seen the movie American Beauty, you may remember the scene where the girl-next-door is warming up to the voyeuristic tendencies of the boy neighbor-next-door. As they are looking at each other through second-floor bedroom windows, she begins to remove her shirt, as he films her on his hand-held video camera. As she proceeds to take of her bra, the viewer can see what he sees in the viewfinder of the camera… a close-up of her face. He was much more interested in the subtle nuances of her face, and her welcoming smile as she disrobed for him, than getting a shot of her boobs, which is what she (and I) was expecting. What are YOUR thoughts? leave a comment below.
I have added a glaze to the sky and painted a second layer over the landscape, wiping away some of the bits to let the underpainting show through. Next, I will go back into the clouds to bring back some highlights and deepen the shadows. Getting close… Here are some photos from the beach painting trip this week. While I was painting, Young Cho walked by and took a couple of photos of me painting. He posted them on his blog. While you are there, you can read about his trip to the US Open (which I didn’t know anything about – to his dismay.) Chip drew a few sketches while I painted – but not fast enough, because the sun went down before I could finish. But just look at this scene… painting at sunset on the beach with a good friend and a bottle of wine. Ah, that’s the life. Happy Solstice!
Beach Colors – 8″x10″ Oil on Birch Board $350
John O’donohue tells us about “thresholds”…
By-the-way, at exactly 4:59pm (PST) On Friday June 20th, 2008, the tilt of the Earth’s axis will be oriented directly towards the Sun, causing the Sun to reach its northernmost extreme. The name solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, its apparent movement north comes to a standstill. The term solstice can also be used in a wider sense, as the day that such a passage happens. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons…they start or separate the seasons… On Friday afternoon, I will be with my good friend Dr. Chip at the beach. We will celebrate the passage into a new season together. We must think of something significant to mark this with. Perhaps a single malt dripped on the earth, and raised to the sun in celebration of passages, thresholds and moving through them. Perhaps it will be a painting that will be our memorial. The thing about our moving through the valley of the shadow of death, is that we know that we are going THROUGH, and it is not the place to stay for long. Seeing that there is shadow in this valley, we know that we are surrounded by light… the Light of the world, that on Friday, will cause the sun to stand still for us, unfolding the beauty of life that shines before us. Postscript… It would be exactly a year from this post (June 18, 2009) that I would suddenly receive that phone call that my father was dying. Suddenly I was standing in a different world. Now, months after his passing, the standing is a bit easier and the Light continues to surround. I am still crossing that threshold, that line in the sand… the line of loss. The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere – in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion and in ourselves. When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming. Some of our most wonderful memories are of beautiful places where we felt immediately at home. We feel most alive in the presence of the Beautiful for it meets the needs of our soul. For a while the strains of struggle and endurance are relieved and our frailty is illuminated by a different light in which we come to glimpse behind the shudder of appearances the sure form of things. In the experience of beauty, we awaken and surrender in the same act. Beauty brings a sense of completion and sureness. Without any of the usual calculation, we can slip into the Beautiful with the same ease we slip into the seamless embrace of water; something ancient within us already trusts that this embrace will hold us.
By John O’Donohue – from the Introduction of “Beauty, the invisible embrace” Here is a quote from a pastor named Chris Seay from Ecclesia in Houston, TX. I love what he says here about Art & Beauty… “Some people’s idea if great art is what looks nice, something nice to hang on a wall. What I hope for in a sermon… in a photograph… a painting, is something that touches way inside. And I don’t necessarily say that’s pretty, I say that’s true. Something about that resonates with in me and our stories collide in that place and that’s really what beauty is about.” My head is full of images of beauty and wonder as I listen to John O’Donohue. I hold my friends dear to my side in life and friendship, and I want to share the following interview with you that we may talk about this approach to seeing life and beauty and God in each other. John O’Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher beloved for his book Anam Cara — Gaelic for “soul friend” — and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. He was interviewed on Speaking of Faith. When you have an hour (make the time) to listen… go to http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/john_odonahue/ to hear this safari of beauty… or » Download (mp3, 53:05) Here is a quote from the interview…
Please make time to download this to your iPod and listen as you walk along the beach, or at the edge of a forest, or at dusk in your own backyard. When you do, let me know and let’s have a cup together to reflect on it. At the least… feel free to make a comment below. -Peace, Rich
Last week I went to Templeton Hospital to say goodbye to my grandmother the day after her 101st birthday. She had been in the hospital for over three weeks and her health was failing. Her last breath was yesterday, March 9th – the same day her husband left us in 1981. My good friend Friar Joe writes this… “Your grandmother takes a big part of you with her love for you to the other side and leaves a big part of her in your heart on this side and the space between her heart and your heart forms God’s Rainbow!!” I’m looking forward to rainbows. Rich |
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