Lilac Window

Here in Tofino I feel intimidated by the art of it. Its a complex feeling, but so intense its hard to ignore.

I wonder how others feel when presented with profound natural beauty. Awestruck? Mystified? Emotional? I feel all these things, as well as a surging impulse to take it in, to process it and to create. I want to stay, meditate on the lessons to learn, and to make things that describe my response. I want to think about all I know, and my way of being, and see how this incredible gift of beauty informs it, changes it, and sheds new light.

We have been witness to such incredible landscapes on this trip, and yet I have so little time to ponder and reflect. I want to record it all, and yet I know that as soon as I move on, or go home, the intensity of it fades.

Part of me wishes I could forget obligations, and find a cabin on some rocky shore, and hibernate for a winter, writing, painting and creating… don’t you? You might. 

I believe making things is a magical expression of human nature, which is to know and worship the Creator of all things. 

We visited Roy Vicker’s art gallery today, and some others. I cant also help but feel saddened and intimidated by the fact that I will never get close to describing the mystical or divine, or even get close to some of the achievements of other artists. I know that self-consciousness kills creativity, and the spirit, yet it seeps in. I am so fundamentally aware of the inadequacy of my attempts. Its a sad and beautiful road, to create. Sometimes I almost don’t want to be inspired, because then I know I will feel disappointment in not realizing that dream. But angst and despair are not for me.

Let us celebrate in the glory and immensity of all we cannot achieve. Its a lover’s pain, and a seeker’s steed. Unity comes after knowledge, and contentment is before nothingness*. 

Let’s be artists…I need to make time to get mystical.

(*I’m referring to Baha’u’llah’s Seven Valleys. A mystical sacred text which references Sufi mysticism.)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under ART, NATURE, TRAVEL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.