Fiction is eternal; reality perishes.

dear friend

“Fiction is eternal; reality perishes. Invented forms live; real ones vanish. Truth is ephemeral; illusion, everlasting.” — Jiri Krasek Ze Lvovic

i could not remember where was the location of the scene i was painting, and i wanted to understand how my memory of a place operates. we first went to cheslen preserve and then to strouds preserve.

first stop, cheslen preserve. nope, the location for that large painting was not in cheslen. although i did do a painting on this location a few years ago. in my line of sight for the painting that day, i think there were a few trees or tall scraggly shrubs and vines in the field, but today a single tree surrounded by a field of wild grass. nothing stays the same.

second stop, strouds preserve. as we approached the location where i had painted the scene that day also a few years ago, i realized how much has changed. again, nothing stays the same.

i also realized that i had unconsciously edited out or added in elements on my plein air painting that day. i don’t remember why i did what i did. i apparently had unconsciously chosen to see what i wanted to see and ignore what i wanted to ignore to make my painting work. it wasn’t reality that i was after, but a sense of the place.

now that i am on site, i realized that i have left out some elements or added in some elements to my large painting. i wondered what i shall do. nothing. i feel that my notan (light-dark balance) is working and i will try to stick with it.

if i had wanted a copy of the scene, i would have taken a photo, printed it, and framed it. alas, even a photo is an illusion or fiction. what the viewer may not see outside of the frame may perhaps be a mess of litter or a mound of rotting carcasses. a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, or a story is illusional and fictional. in every truth, there is an element of an illusion or a fiction.

strouds preserve, pennsylvania

notan

work in progress

Seeking Shelter

Seeking Shelter. Oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches.

I have been playing around with this painting on and off for a few years. I was just playing around with it to see where I could go with this scenery.

It started off as a painting from a photo of a clearing up a hill in a bird sanctuary in Delaware. I do not remember the name of this place, but I like to call it Hawk Lookout Hill. This painting went through several changes including scrape-downs until it eventually evolved into a winter scene. On the wall and off the walls, and into storage and out of storage.

I felt it needed to tell a story, but I could not decide on one until now — an animal seeking shelter and human tracks leading to around the back of the shelter. The rest of the story is up to your imagination. Create your own reality.

Parting thoughts for 2020

I pray that throughout all the coming years, people will be kind, patient and respectful always, and not during only the Christmas season or whichever special holiday celebration you celebrate.

Many other people will say, Goodbye 2020 and don’t let the door hit you in your ass. That is understandable. We are only human. I would say the same too, but I choose not to. But I rather say, Goodbye and thank you 2020, because you have taught us a lot about ourselves. Amongst many other lessons, you have revealed to us that we as a collective have more control over the economy and the multimillion and multibillion dollar companies then we have believed, because as consumers, we are the ones who truly run the economy. Without consumer spending, wealthy people and companies cannot make meet their profit margins. The reality is that they rely upon our labour and our spendings. So when business reports lament about the stock market, I roll my eyes and I laugh.

I hope, at least throughout next year, people will be more kind and patient with each other, and that people and companies who have amassed wealth will show more respectfulness, compassion and kindness to the people whom they market to to get them to buy their services and products.

I always say to my friends, there is nothing evil with making profits and amassing more wealth, but there is a whole lot of evil in being selfish and greedy — amassing wealth at the expense of other people and the environment.

In a world where you can be anything, be kind.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try to be a little kinder.’ — Alduos Huxley (1894-1963)

Cheers and Happy New Year!