Thursday, October 4, 2012

women who must paint

I believe all of us are touched by the MUSE now and then.  All of us can access creativity, if we desire it sincerely, and make the appropriate propitiations ETC.  Even if your creativity is perhaps as everyday as baking cookies or organizing really beautiful filing cabinets, you are still honoring the MUSE.

source: the hermitage
Then there are those whose lives are devoted to the MUSE.  Given over to the quiet delirium of creativity with every cell of their body.  Whose every breath seems somehow influenced and given to the creative life.  Tiny embellishments to every mundane detail. Grand sweeping acts of creation performed with shocking confidence. I am breath taken by their passion, their wildness. Their bold individuality. These people inspire and fascinate me.

source: the hermitage
We could make a long list of famous artists of this kind, but then there are also the hidden artists, marginalized people, those who create through the years with no hope or interest of recognition. Sometimes they are considered mad, visionary. Foolish. Dangerous.

 source: the hermitage

Sometimes these are artists who don't have studios or much money for art supplies. I'm humbled by those who create with what they have or can find, discarded or recycled items, or boldly paint or mosaic or whatever right on their walls, doors, porches. They quite often 'recycle' the awful of their lives and remake it into something beautiful.

source: the hermitage
I honor their passion, their strength. They who have, no matter their humble circumstances, have served the MUSE.  It strengthens me and encourages me to soldier on with my ART, whatever my daily discouragements.
source: the hermitage
On that note, I came across this blog post on the hermitage, an enchanting blog by touched-by-the-wild artist Rima. 

She tells us the story about three old women, in different countries, who in their latter years began painting their houses. Not decorous eggshell white. Not tasteful little watercolors of flowers in a vase. But covering the interior and sometimes exterior with wondrous and fantastic imagery.  

Wild, dreamy, magical images.  Wolves and princesses, flowers and trees, angels and demons. Anything from within their fevered imaginations spilled over in paint on every surface of their dwellings, the only spaces under their direct control. And made something beautiful, for the world to marvel at.

 
source: the hermitage
 Why did these old women break free from convention to paint?

After years of hardship and repression, what wild spirit made them break free?

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