The Awful Daring of A Moment's Surrender
Mixed media on canvas, 48" x 24"
Acrylic, marble and clay dust, paste, various glazes.
Another one based on
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, lines 401 to 409 from section V,
What The Thunder Said:
Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty roomsThe "Datta" allusion is to the
Upanishads, where three groups each interpret God's utterance differently and take away three different meanings of life: generosity, self-control, and compassion. Datta is the first interpretation - generosity, or giving charitably.
I don't really get a sense of charity from the lines above. They have more to do with self-control than charity, I suspect. To me, the "awful daring" means making a momentary decision - even passively - that may change the trajectory of one's life. In a way, it's about taking risks and the sort of actions that result as a consequence.
The risks we take are ultimately what define us though not necessarily in a bad way. A big leitmotif theme in Eliot's work is regret from a life of inaction and dwelling on what one
didn't do. What we leave behind should be memories of our best actions, not a dry catalogue of dates summed up by our obituaries, epitaphs, and wills.
Anyway, enough philosophy: so to my mind, an illustrative painting following this theme needed lots of texture, swirling red, maybe some suggested fossils or wings.
`ChewedKandi has certainly gone out of her way to keep the vector community on the right path. Always making sure that her talents are infinitely scalable, Sharon has put her bezier curves to excellent use, and firmly anchored herself as an inspirational leader. We're absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for June 2013 to `ChewedKandi. Congratulations, Sharon! Read More
Sta.sh
generosity is the reason for existence. "what have we given?" is very key in this poem.
thank you for giving me this image to view. i love the colors, glazes, and textures: i love the dark red, glazed blue, golden tones, vibrant reds, interesting oranges and browns...
i love it!