Love, art & nature
1. Love
The past few years I’ve had tears welling up in my eyes quite often when looking at Facebook every time there’s an earthquake in New Zealand, with messages like “I’m ok. Love you.”
It must be such a powerful and frightening time, a time of intense feelings as well as appreciation and thankfulness for each other — where we are drawn together and are more likely to openly share thoughts of love for each other.
Perhaps this is the way to get through intense and difficult times, and for me, this message of love (the kind of which I have seen on my Facebook stream all week), written on a sheet and hung by the door, is one of the most powerful messages I’ve ever seen, as a message for close friends & family as well as a powerful message of love for humankind.
2. Art
This message I spotted on Brainpickings from Toni Morrison has been particularly poignant this week — a call for people to create and express themselves in a way to help heal from troubled experiences rather than be shut down. Perhaps poetry & art provide a crack where the light can get in, to show a way out or a way through, to be resilient by sharing what is important with others.
3. Nature
I remember my art tutor saying recently: “What matters is the message from you; from your subject; and from the materials together.”
I’ve been thinking about the sparkly sea in this drawing lately, how beautiful it is by simply being a sweep of pastel on textured paper. Also the deep black charcoal of the volcano.
I am reminded of being in Milford Sounds one winter, listening to the kiwi jazz band “Hamster” and taking in the landscape, the hills, water and stormy sky with the intense black and silver light you get in New Zealand.
