Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Faith


Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch. ~E.M. Forster

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. ~Emmanuel

This painting has a story. It's for my friend James who has been out of work like so many other people for such a long time. After reading his expression of frustration the other day, the word faith was bouncing around in my heart and mind. I found the above words and was surprised by the opposing images they portrayed -- one is about fortitude while the other is about flexibility.

So I set out to paint. I wanted structure, holding on to the order of things even when everything feels disorderly. I was painting my little boxes meticulously when I accidentally knocked over my cup of water all over the painting! Everything started running together! Oh, I was mad! (And said a few words I can't repeat here.) At first I was tempted to throw the darn thing away but knew I wouldn't have time to start from scratch. So I worked with it. Yesterday and today. And now I'm quite pleased. It's different than I had expected -- more gradations of color, but isn't that more interesting?

7 comments:

  1. Love the painting, and love the explanation. This almost looks like stained glass. I see the faith in it, too!

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  2. I love how it came out with the gradations. The universe does provide...beautiful Cori.

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  3. interesting. lovely. meant to be!

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  4. I really like this one. It feels both playful and solid to me. And the story of what happened and how you worked with it is great. I think there are lots of "accidents" in some of my favorite art.

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  5. It turned out great and just like the quote of Emmanuel!!! You had to let go of the control and go with the flow! How magical was that!
    Hope your friend will find a job soon, these are hard times for a lot of people......

    Have a nice weekend!

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  6. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing the painting and the thoughts behind it over at Bliss Habits!!

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Your thoughts are a blessing to me!

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