Threshold

I am getting into the thick of preparations for my solo show that will take place this November at the gallery space at Artists and Makers Studios in Rockville, MD. I am really looking foward to it and am trying to make bigger works for the main gallery space and then have smaller pieces in the hallway. This past month I decided to make a companion piece to “As Within, So Without”. Companion piece? Maybe not. Maybe more like inspired by.

Tonight while I was thinking of the title for this painting, I came upon the poem “Evidence” by Mary Oliver and I found it comforting. Here is an excerpt from it that I especially liked.

There are many ways to perish, or to flourish.

How old pain, for example, can stall us at the threshold of function….

Still friends, consider stone, that is without the fret of gravity, and water that is without anxiety. 

And the pine trees that never forget their recipe for renewal. 

And the female wood duck who is looking this way and that way for her children. And the snapping turtle who is looking this way and that way also. This is the world. 

And consider, always, every day, the determination of the grass to grow despite the unending obstacles.