AGING

                 "Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.  Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born."

                                                             Albert Einstein

                    This small painting called to my mind some positive aspects of growing older.  First off, the older I get the more I come to realize that not just me but all of us are operating in the dark.  Basically we don't really have a clue what tomorrow will bring.  And while that thought can be rather frightening at times, it can be pretty exhilarating as well.  What great adventure awaits us tomorrow?   Secondly, even though I tried to make the vase look as old and beat up as possible, there is a certain beauty to not only the shape but also to the aging surface.  In my eye, it holds as much appeal or perhaps even more than the flowers do.  Older faces do indeed tell their own story.  In them are written tracks of tears, laugh lines, and worry lines ~ hints of sad times and happy times, exciting moments of overwhelming joy and dark moments of grief and despair.  Einstein was so right.  No matter what our time here on earth brings to us, our experiences rarely turn out the way we think.  All in all they are mysterious events that unfold in their own time and their own way no matter what we think we have planned.  So, I for one, am going to try to be happy to sit back and enjoy the ride.  Of course, though, having grown a little fragile over the past few years, I'll try to remember to buckle up.

 Symbolism

            Symbols have a trick of stealing the show away from the thing they stand for.

                            Henry S. Haskins

                To save you a few clicks on your iPad I will tell you that lilies symbolically signify that the soul of the deceased has been restored to the state of innocence.  I don't exactly see that when I look at a lily but I can glimpse the idea of new life and purity.  Thoughts like the restoration of innocence to a deceased person or even new beginnings weren't exactly on my mind, however, as I worked on this painting.  I was too focused on getting the right colors, the right perspective, the right composition.  Only when the painting was completed and had sat in my studio for quite a while did I take the time to look up and find out exactly what made the lily an Easter favorite.  Never again, I thought upon reading the Wikipedia post, will I look at a lily the same way.  When I took out my camera and began to take pictures of this painting I was also struck by the idea that I had been missing out on seeing the symbolic meaning of so many things I come across every day, many of which are things I am either creating or doing, not just things that I touch or pass by every day.  While the world around us may seem to us a beautiful place adding the icing of symbolism can make it a place of wonder and peace as well.  So these days if you catch me bent over my iPad it just means I'm trying to figure out what exactly I'm looking at, touching, tasting, smelling..........well, you get it