Bodhana, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, © 2010 Diane McGregorAll landscapes have a history, much the same as people exist within cultures, even tribes. There are distinct voices, languages that belong to particular areas. There are voices inside rocks, shallow washes, shifting skies; they are not silent. And there is movement, not always the violent motion of earthquakes associated with the earth's motion or the steady unseen swirl through the heavens, but other motion, subtle, unseen, like breathing. A motion, a sound, that if you allow your own inner workings to stop long enough, moves into the place inside you that mirrors a similar landscape; you too can see it, feel it, hear it, know it.
-- Joy Harjo, from Secrets from the Center of the World
5 comments:
beautiful and evocative painting. yes, landscape is part of me and i am so affected by the landscape i am in. one reason it was so hard to move away from my 20 year rental. now, i am in a different landscape which has effected its "subtle, unseen" magic upon me and is so hard to leave.
Thanks, Suki. So glad to hear you are merging with your new surroundings.
Diane, what a beautiful quote and a beautiful painting...I will look for that book. Just last week, a friend sent me one of Joy Harjo's poems, from a book called 'Life Prayers". What a wonderful coincidence. Thanks for that. I will send it to you if you wish.
Janice, the book is really nice -- it includes photographs by Stephen Strom, who is also an astronomer -- he and my husband are colleagues. Joy Harjo is in Santa Fe today, in fact, signing copies of her books (Indian Market is going on in the plaza this weekend). I would love a copy of the poem your friend sent to you, if it's not too much trouble.
This is a landscape of the imagination, of memory. It could be anywhere and is everywhere.
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