With a salute to Robert Frost and M. Scott Peck, I gave my painting the title, The Dock Less Traveled.
In Southampton, NY, where I live, we have many private docks. The poetic imagery of this is significant to me as each of us has a private walk with the Lord. And, in a way we each have our own private spiritual dock, our own walk over the water. God meets us on our own private dock over the Bible (as mayim, water in Hebrew, stands for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch ).
So, when we walk over the water – and a dock represents a small bridge over water—we are as close to walking on water as we can be without actually walking on it. There is also an implied reference to the idea of over a bridge over troubled waters (thank you Simon and Garfunkle).
All the symbolism was present for me as I worked on this painting. It is all about our walk-- or for me, stumble forward with my God.
Each of us walks along on our own individual dock over the water.
THE DOCK LESS TRAVELED
Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series
2005
30 x 24 inches
Acrylic on canvas
Texts used: Genesis 1- 2:7, Deut. 6 , Psalm 19
Imagine yourself facing a dock at a magnificent sunset. Do you step nt the dock and get seemingly colder to the sunset over the water or do you stay where you are on the beach. If you walk towards the sunset on the dock how far do you actually walk?
That is what this painting is about for me.
I had a photo of a local dock and I slightly skewed the light so that it came a bit more from the side. I thought I had artistic license. I preferred the image my way. I liked the idea of the light (God's Light) not being direct but slightly to the side so one would have to look for it).
I sent an archival signed print to Rebecca, my best pal in Orlando. All was well until her father, Rolf, came to visit.
Somewhere in his life Rolf had taken some art classes. He noticed that the perspective of the light over the water was off in relation to where it ws on the bridge. Again, I intended it to be so. Still, it bothered Rolf. So, he spoke to me about it, pointing out the obvious.
Rolf is Rebecca's dad, and a dear man. So, I bit my tongue, not mentioning the last 70 years or more of abstraction and artistic license, out of respect and kindness for him. I definitely was thinking fuddy-duddy and wondering what Rolf would have advised Picasso, among others. Still, I was polite. I had to be since I was especially focused on my own walk by even discussing this image. ( May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart...)
Although polite I was dismissing Rolf's comments for myself until Rebecca came on the phone with the news that now, as she looked at her print she could not get over that the path of the light was off and it bothered her, too.
The Dock Less Traveled is one of my earliest paintings, and their comments resonated. I trust Rebecca to hear from the Lord if she tunes in, which can sometimes be as annoying for her as it is for me as it means added work and change. I listened, but muttered quietly to myself.
The Dock Less Traveled is the only painting I have ever reworked based on anyone's comments. It just somehow seemed right to do so despite my understanding of abstraction in Modern art. Ironic, since the whole intent of this work is about walking closely on one's individual path with the Lord I changed it based on people's comments.
But then, there's that idea from Proverbs that in the counsel of many is wisdom.
The Dock Less Traveled is one of the first prints, so I have to reissue the print, too. Changing it was not an easy choice.
I repainted it to show the actual -- dare I say realistic?—light path over the water. I reissued the print. I have fussed with it ever since.
As I write this I can see the actual painting, which is on the wall of the hall right outside of my studio-office. Whe I sit at the main computer it is the painting I can see the best. I put it there to ponder. For almost two years now I have pondered it, thinking about painting it back the way it was originally. Until now I was seriously considering re-painting it to the original way it was.
Then today in the shower, mayim pouring over me, I got it.
Rolf is correct.
The original way I had painted it is correct also.
If we step out and walk along our path with the Lord, if we veer to the right or left a tad, God will meet us. God will light the path ever correct our path for where we are now. Thus, for those of us who have strayed (count me in) the path is still before us. It may not be the original path we saw, but a new one and it is still God's path for us.
The path now.
Rolf's version is the original moment, the original path, just as perfect and just as much God's Plan.
Whether on the original path or the adjusted and also perfect path all we need to do is take the next step onto our unique dock and move forward.
With one small purposeful step you can move from where you are to the Holy One's unique path for you. We can move forward on the dock less traveled.
Now the question is, for each of us, when we come to the end of the dock , are we, like a kid on a hot summer's day, willing to jump in -- to the water (biblical mayim)? Or will we stop and stop our forward progress?
This article is with thanks to Rebecca and her dear Dad Rolf who have given me permission to use their names.
See all of the merchandise featuring the Dock Less Traveled click the thumbnail image:
verything was going well with the new Essence portraits until I began to work on one of Claude Monet. The first one was of Andy Warhol, which set the tone for the others as I tried to combine my style somewhat with theirs. For instance for Vincent van Gogh, I made “strings:” of tiny letters to emulate his longer strong brush strokes. Rembrandt, I played with his softness and the light. I am working my way through the artist whose work influenced me, my heroes.
I was also fixed on painting faces, up close with maybe a bit of neck, stylized and simplified, thus the term Essence refers both the our spiritual essence, physical essence (always symbolically referring to the pre-matter branes of strings – the energy that matter is made of) plus, the essence of a person's appearance. Faces, just faces.
But when I came to Monet, I became stumped.
As I stared at my initial portraits of Monet, I knew something was missing. But what?
Actually, I had the text I knew I was to use, a Psalm that seems to me to refer to Monet. That was one of the first ones I had as I peruse through Bible texts searching for appropriate ones for portraits, wildlife and other paintings.
The difficulty was whatever I drew and painted did look like Monet, but somehow it was wrong – a likeness that was missing his essence. My portrait looked like Monet, but failed to captue him. Hmmm... This went on for a week, on and off as I pondered Monet and his life.
I first learned about the wonder and even magic of strokes from Monet, who “held” regular classes for me through his works that hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I learned about art from many of the works of artists at the Met and MoMa, from the time that I was a pre-teen growing up in NYC, armed with a passionate curiosity about art, way too much free time that needed to be spent away from home, passes for free public transportation, and as a student free admittance to all of the museums.
Being nearsighted, actually with better than normal vision up close, I have always been most comfortable getting as close to things I want to see (especially art) as my nose will allow.
Last spring the Wildenstein Gallery gave NYC a world class type of museum show of Monet's works. It was crowded, but after assuring the guards that I would not actually touch the works, that I am just a near-sighted artist, they also allowed me to come close, but now I quietly take care not to even breathe on the works (there is moisture in breath).
Monet taught me more about how to paint and strokes than anyone, except van Gogh.
We know that Monet painted outdoors, including in horrible weather, working quickly to catch the light, that he would return to the same spot to paint day after day, as change between canvasses, each canvas only worked on for the time that the light was relatively the same as when it was begun. Thus there are series of paintings that show the movement of light through the day. Monet painted in a hurry, capturing the essence of a place, capturing its light. His strokes are the hurried and thoughtful strokes of a master; they are the notes of a symphony of color that he plays upon his canvases.
It took a man who was strong, physically and in resolution to produce the art that Monet did. Physically, he endured long days outdoors in the cold and heat. We see photographs of his large studio at Giverney, but that came late in life. Most of his paintings were created outdoors as Monet painted what he immediately saw. To do this he was lugging around paints, brushes, solvents, an easel and lots of canvases, from location to location, often on foot. He would stand all day long in whatever conditions, painting. He was strong is resolution, too as he struggled for a long time to make ends meet for his wife Camille and their two children. Then after her death he continued to struggle to take care of his two sons plus the family of Alice Hoschedé, who became his second wife, and her six children.
To capture the essence of Monet, the artist in his prime, I needed his body, at least his strong shoulders that had supported so much and so many, and perhaps Impressionism, which ushered in Modern Art.
I began again and the effort was better, but difficult to complete as something was still missing. Monet without color is, well, not Monet. However, my original Essence works are black and white, but I will be using the images in later works that involve color. So how could I reconcile this?
There is more shading, built of layers of symbol-strokes, often made with very thin nibs or brushes, than in any portraits thus far. Then, at the very end, using a brush, I added in pure white daubs of symbol strokes, even in the background, adding a bit of color to the not as pure white paper. There is a bit of the purest white in his eyes, those eyes that saw such color and light!
Thus, in my own first portrait of Monet that seemed acceptable, that captured Monet, his essence, and his blobs of strokes permeated the whole of the space, the paper, not just the image of his physical body. He takes over the whole space the way that dynamic and charismatic people can enter a room, most quietly, but their vital energy colors the space with their presence.
Once again, I learn from Monet.
January 24, 2008
[Note: for more about Monet's influence on Judy Rey Wasserman and UnGraven Image theory see: Monet's Blobs and the Hebrew Letters ]
