“Windows”, 40” x 30”, mixed media/canvas
Available at Paragon Fine Arts, Lewisburg, WV
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They offer just enough privacy to help us feel secure in our homes, with that peculiar luxury of seeing but not participating in the wild world beyond. I can assess the climate and scope things out before committing to directly engage.
It’s also fun to take advantage of their limited veiling. Walking in the evenings in a neighborhood lets me glimpse into interiors and for an instant gain a peek into how others arrange their homes—the wall colors, the lighting, the art, the furnishings. Is their taste spartan or flamboyant? Antique or sleek styles, focused or eclectic? I never noticed that piano…
Even the simplest window humbly embodies near magical, multi-sensory options beyond sight. Safely perched in our room they let sun or moonlight flow in, keep snow out and retain warmth during chilly seasons, can gift us with sweet birdsongs in the morning, and cool fresh breezes on hot evenings.
I love how from the street view the interior light glows through the panes. Blinds or curtains can intensify the contrasting tones. The dynamic is further influenced by the sunrise or sunset, the street lights, the shadowing of the trees, and the lay of the land.
The windows of a cabin nestled in a hillside radiate a wholly different effect from those of a home reflected across a lake or an inner city penthouse on a snowy evening. Broken windows in any setting evoke an unconscious pathos or concern in us. Like a broken mug, something useful we’ve all enjoyed has been rendered unusable. Worse than a mug, there’s an implication a violation has occurred.
"To thee I do commend my watchful soul, Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes," ~ from “Richard III” by Wm. Shakespeare.
Smudged and soiled windows suggest a lack of care and make us uneasy. Clean windows, like clear eyes, feel “honest,” maybe because nothing is hidden. Although made of the same elements, just as a glance can be chilling or kind, a clean window can generate coldness or warmth depending on how it presents itself to us.
Windows are a unique portal, a passage through which we don’t physically trespass, yet they generate a felt experience within, through our intellectual and emotional selves.
I’ve always responded to color. It moves me without thought. Like eyes may “flash”, glow, or absorb us, I’m intrigued by the way certain chromatic tones affect us. It’s challenging to articulate the visceral way I respond to color. I suspect we all may have a predisposition to lean toward certain harmonies and arrangements.
I have a set of 1500 paint color samples, each on an 8” x 10” sheet. They’re pure chromatic “tastings” and at a rudimentary level, seen independently, they all glow and not one of them feels “ugly.” To proclaim a color ugly to me seems akin to a musician claiming a lone note, experienced on its own as dissonant. Disharmony is entirely related to context—the dynamic with other notes, their varying intensities, how much of each, the overlay, the arrangement, even the environment in which they are experienced.
How much am I influenced by the accumulated noise of views that are not based on my direct experience? Can I keep my being free from thinking, stay open to all those souls I encounter? Recognize there can be immense depth felt in even instantaneous exchanges through the window of each other’s eyes? In my daily encounters, can I refrain from judging the color of a soul “ugly” or “righteous”, and instead look to feel and understand its presence in context, as one tiny piece in this grand, infinite mosaic?
Rather than staying falsely separate and insisting on keeping distant, can I unlock some of my own boundaries, allow the presence of others to flow in a safe exchange? Are my own windows free of accumulated dirt, are they clear, warm and welcoming? Am I using the window of Awareness, this mysterious gift of being and profound portal, to nurture the glow of our connection to one another and all life?
Here’s to keeping our windows clean and open in the year ahead.
Available at Paragon Fine Arts, Lewisburg, WV
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They offer just enough privacy to help us feel secure in our homes, with that peculiar luxury of seeing but not participating in the wild world beyond. I can assess the climate and scope things out before committing to directly engage.
It’s also fun to take advantage of their limited veiling. Walking in the evenings in a neighborhood lets me glimpse into interiors and for an instant gain a peek into how others arrange their homes—the wall colors, the lighting, the art, the furnishings. Is their taste spartan or flamboyant? Antique or sleek styles, focused or eclectic? I never noticed that piano…
Even the simplest window humbly embodies near magical, multi-sensory options beyond sight. Safely perched in our room they let sun or moonlight flow in, keep snow out and retain warmth during chilly seasons, can gift us with sweet birdsongs in the morning, and cool fresh breezes on hot evenings.
I love how from the street view the interior light glows through the panes. Blinds or curtains can intensify the contrasting tones. The dynamic is further influenced by the sunrise or sunset, the street lights, the shadowing of the trees, and the lay of the land.
The windows of a cabin nestled in a hillside radiate a wholly different effect from those of a home reflected across a lake or an inner city penthouse on a snowy evening. Broken windows in any setting evoke an unconscious pathos or concern in us. Like a broken mug, something useful we’ve all enjoyed has been rendered unusable. Worse than a mug, there’s an implication a violation has occurred.
"To thee I do commend my watchful soul, Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes," ~ from “Richard III” by Wm. Shakespeare.
Smudged and soiled windows suggest a lack of care and make us uneasy. Clean windows, like clear eyes, feel “honest,” maybe because nothing is hidden. Although made of the same elements, just as a glance can be chilling or kind, a clean window can generate coldness or warmth depending on how it presents itself to us.
Windows are a unique portal, a passage through which we don’t physically trespass, yet they generate a felt experience within, through our intellectual and emotional selves.
I’ve always responded to color. It moves me without thought. Like eyes may “flash”, glow, or absorb us, I’m intrigued by the way certain chromatic tones affect us. It’s challenging to articulate the visceral way I respond to color. I suspect we all may have a predisposition to lean toward certain harmonies and arrangements.
I have a set of 1500 paint color samples, each on an 8” x 10” sheet. They’re pure chromatic “tastings” and at a rudimentary level, seen independently, they all glow and not one of them feels “ugly.” To proclaim a color ugly to me seems akin to a musician claiming a lone note, experienced on its own as dissonant. Disharmony is entirely related to context—the dynamic with other notes, their varying intensities, how much of each, the overlay, the arrangement, even the environment in which they are experienced.
How much am I influenced by the accumulated noise of views that are not based on my direct experience? Can I keep my being free from thinking, stay open to all those souls I encounter? Recognize there can be immense depth felt in even instantaneous exchanges through the window of each other’s eyes? In my daily encounters, can I refrain from judging the color of a soul “ugly” or “righteous”, and instead look to feel and understand its presence in context, as one tiny piece in this grand, infinite mosaic?
Rather than staying falsely separate and insisting on keeping distant, can I unlock some of my own boundaries, allow the presence of others to flow in a safe exchange? Are my own windows free of accumulated dirt, are they clear, warm and welcoming? Am I using the window of Awareness, this mysterious gift of being and profound portal, to nurture the glow of our connection to one another and all life?
Here’s to keeping our windows clean and open in the year ahead.
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