Chagall | The Direction of Intention

On The Cusp [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on April 11, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

The phrase “On the cusp” can be misleading. There is rarely a single point, a moment of before-and-after in the passage from this-to-that. I smiled when she named this photograph “winterspring.” Yes. both/and. Not-this-and-not-that.

No passage is immediate. Caterpillars do not become butterflies in a snap. Teenagers do not become adults overnight. Transitions take time. Becoming is less a journey with an arrival than a discovery that “I am no longer that.”

Artistry is like that, too. Passions change. Not overnight but over time. What was vital to explore ten years ago seems distant, passé. The body of an artist’s work serves as a roadmap for their becoming, for their dedication to essence. Flip through the work of Matisse or Chagall. They grew simpler at the end of their lives as if pulled into a center. Michelangelo is another. At the end of his life, he broke form, entirely. It took the world 500 years to understand what he was chasing at the end.

We have been on the cusp for quite some time. Not-this-and-not-that.

Yesterday we walked the trail during the eclipse. The glasses were sold out everywhere so we didn’t see it. But we felt it in the light. We felt it when the light returned. The deer seemed to feel it too. Usually skittish, they held a quiet vigil. They allowed us to pass within a few feet. We reveled in the magic we experienced during the moon’s passage between the earth and the sun. We listened to news reports of people cheering. We talked of the intensity of the color.

“Someday we will look back on this time.” I said. “And, this is what we will remember.”

Three Graces, 32″ x 56″, acrylic on canvas

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CUSP

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Ask The Simple Question [on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on August 16, 2021 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Simplicities are enormously complex. Consider the sentence “I love you”.” ~Richard O. Moore, Writing The Silences

I’ve been told again and again that, at the heart of every complexity, there is a simplicity. And, of course, at the heart of every simplicity, there is a complexity. So, either way you go, there you are.

I find that I am yearning for greater and greater simplicity. I appreciate quiet. I avoid crowds, not “like the plague” but because of it. I’d rather be in my studio or on a trail than almost anywhere else. I wish I could go sit in a museum all by myself, in the quiet for an hour or two, with a Chagall or Picasso. Intentional beauty. I feel like the world is so full of extraneous noise and dedicated bloviating that I’m having trouble hearing the simple essentials.

And, perhaps because my desire is for simplicity, I find that I am, like Frankie, projecting simple solutions on to everything. Yes, 9 million dollars in my bank account would solve everything!

Almost.

Do you remember Rodney King? I was in Los Angeles when he was beaten, when the city was aflame after the acquittal of the officers who beat him. Do you remember what he asked? It was the ultimate simplicity: “Why can’t we all just get along?”

I think it would take something more than 9 million dollars to solve the complexity to which Rodney King spoke. There probably isn’t enough money in the world. But, here in my dedicated simplicity, I think the opposite should be true. Rather than cost anything, getting along would probably save all of us a lot of money, and time, and heart ache. Getting along would profit all of us.

It costs nothing to open a door for someone. Put a price on gratitude. I can’t. How much does it cost to tell the truth? What about making sure everyone is safe and well fed, that everyone can walk safely down the street, that people are paid fairly, that the rules apply equally to all, that, if you’re injured or become sick, you will be treated and not lose your house in the process?

It doesn’t seem like that should be so far out of reach.

There I go again. At the heart of every simplicity…

read Kerri’s blog post about 9 MILLION DOLLARS

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Take The Time

Posted on February 4, 2014 by davidrobinsoncreative

Marc Chagall ‘America Windows’

I finally saw Marc Chagall’s ‘America Window.’ It’s at the Art Institute of Chicago and has long been on my must-experience list. It’s a long list! Unlike most bucket lists, my list cannot be contained in a bucket and I have no illusion that I will experience everything on the list before I die. It’s not possible to experience everything on my list in a single lifetime. I keep my list to remind myself that my life is both finite and that this life holds more miracles than any single life-bucket can contain. Finite lifespan nests within the infinite awe.

The Window provided me with an extraordinary perspective flip. When first approaching it I thought, “How spare!” It was breathtaking in color but seemed narratively sparse, like a Mark Rothko instead of a Marc Chagall. And then I stepped closer and the story of the Window began to emerge. An entire world opened for me. The longer I looked the more I saw. The more I saw the more I wanted to look. It was as if I was at first hypnotized and then drawn into the world of the Window. When I finally decided to leave, I walked several paces away and turned back for one more look. The world that had at first seemed spare was now too full to comprehend. I was seeing beyond my thinking.

What a great metaphor for the process of stepping into presence! It’s a process of moving from the conceptual to an experience. Our thinking, our relationship with language, requires us to generalize and a generality is always an abstraction. It is made up. For instance, right now, looking out my window, I see many “trees” and, in truth, I’m not seeing them at all. I’m seeing the abstract concept “tree” that I attach to many, many unique forms. I’m seeing what I expect to see. If I take the time to go outside and touch, smell and feel them, I see that each “tree” is vastly different than all the others. No two forms are ever the same. They are vastly different than my expectation. It is not until we take the time to move beyond our words that we regain our capacity to see.

Chagall, like all great artists, knew this. He knew that people need help seeing and that seeing is vastly different than looking. Vital life, dare I say the rich meaning of life, is available when we learn to see beyond our abstractions. Vital life (the infinite) dances in front of us all of the time. It is the role of the artist to help us move beyond our expectation and engage with the dance. The Window reminded me that sometimes we need only take the time to open our eyes and see.

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