Many commentators have labeled our current time: darkness has arrived. During the last iteration of an unbelievable presidency, I produced a suite of work about light, What the Light Saw. A recently completed painting, Pool, suggests the work going forward may explore darker realms.
I often rearrange artwork in my personal space, rotating pieces in different places, rooms, settings. Recently, I added the work below to our main wall. Hailing from 2018, it is a new moon. The moon is always with us, something to remember when it's in the "new" phase, when it offers us invisibility as a presence.
The new moon is complicated. While we can set intentions for the new cycle, it sheds no light to guide us. She stands in the night, and day-blind sky, and takes her time to light her lantern. Here is a poem from Wendell Berry that brought the day-blind idea into my thought-sphere.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
The moon is with us always, waiting with her light. When we are sure of that, there is little that can distract us. Worry is a waste of energy.
