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February 4, 2016

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Photography, Poetry

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In Defense of Art

Rabbit in Rain, by bench

Some people see nature
and have to make art.
Sculpt, paint, illustrate,
immortalize and why?
To revisit that moment
to freeze it, never leave it.
We tinker, change
renew, remake, even fake.
If only time were a centrifuge,
spinning inward the best parts,
the sweetest, fleeting moments,
all together in the center
in one memory maelstrom
of magical moments.
The longest hug, the first kiss,
a safe landing from the scariest ride,
getting your first job,
the moment you finished a book that changed your life,
the scents of coffee, chocolate, pastries and tea
intertwined in your favorite cafe,
finishing your best work ever,
the night you laughed so hard you cried,
getting a parking space beside the door when you’re crazy late,
the number of stars visible on the darkest night,
and when you finally gave birth in an agony of warm liquid
only to have those new, moist eyes transfix you.
We could live there at the center
if we could fix to our walls the art of each moment.
Isn’t it worth trying?

Stone rabbit in rain

Note: We found the first rabbit, huddled in the rain, when we visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The poor thing seemed to roll his eyes at us, as if our taking a picture of him while he was cold and wet was the final indignity of a long, hungry day. We found the second rabbit in a garden. I was struck by how someone had seen the crack in him, and had just tucked a scarlet dahlia behind his ear. My children were young enough to wonder why we were at a Museum at all. I told them we were there to see art, and they looked at me blankly. I told them we were looking for secret doors and hidden rooms. Everywhere we went, we looked at the angle of things and speculated which painting might conceal a secret passage. These photographs remind me of that day. Let’s remember only good things, at least today. Maybe we can even take one of them and make it into art. Have a magical day! Warmly, Brenda

27 thoughts on “In Defense of Art”

  1. That flower makes him look so bright, clever idea to conceal a crack. I guess you might as well make use of even flaws! 😉

    I agree so much with the idea of making art, preserving those beautiful and fleeting moments of life, you’re poem has a great message! I bought a new android phone this summer and took some film of a beautiful garden I visited, I’ll get round to putting up on the blog sometime this year. But even if I never did use that footage, it was lovely to have an almost living memory of that couple of hours on the last warm day of summer we had, and all the magic of that garden. Oh, how I wish we had been able to produce such films back in the 70’s and 80’s, it would be so lovely to have moving images of all those departed and the lovely days out we had as a family, and the crazy things the dog did! Oh yes, preserve those moments in any arty way you can. And you do so well at that Brenda! 🙂

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  3. I love living like this! I used to see magic everywhere…in tree stumps and wild fields and gates and cracked sidewalks. I lost the sight somewhere when my kids went through their teens. Now that I have a grandson we pretend and play unicorns in the castle and look for lions in the woods. Art is everywhere, in everything.

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  7. Beautiful words and beautiful post and indeed we are reminded constantly throughout our day that the magic of life is all around us…we just have to be looking at it with child-like eyes! As we grow into adults our eyes seem to get clouded over…thank you for reminding us Brenda. 😊

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  10. It’s always interesting to imagine what animals must think of us. Last summer, we spend time each night checking the yard for rabbits before letting our dog out. They would look at us, as if to say “but I’m eating…”

    Anything that helps kids appreciate (or tolerate) art is a good thing.

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