Magic at the Met

 My daughter and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently. We have been there many times since I moved to New York City in 2009, and each time I go, I am engaged by the sensory delights around every corner. On this trip, we focused on European painting. We marveled at the technique and artistry of Rembrandt, Thomas Gainsborough, Goya, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Gerome. The galleries were not crowded making the experience that much more enjoyable. When I see the melting quality of these masters, I feel inspired to take up my own brush. I am also saddened by a pivotal decade lost when I could have immersed myself in the study of technique, perfecting my own skills and artistry, had it not been for challenging and overwhelming circumstances in my life.

When we as artists feel bad because we have not achieved what we hoped to achieve by a certain point in our lives, for whatever reasons, that drains us of the creativity and joy we do possess. We have to gather ourselves and assess where we are right now and work with that. Otherwise, we are in danger of stopping. David Bayles and Ted Orlend in “Art and Fear” say that successful artists have learned how NOT to stop making art. And, refusing to move forward from where we are now, because we are not where we think we SHOULD be, is tantamount to taking the gift we have been given and throwing it back into the face of the Divine.

Alfred David Lenz (1872–1926)
Date: 1916

Cultivating gratitude for our gifts is the weapon in this struggle. At the heart of my art is a focus on overcoming heavy, afflictive emotions to access the light of the higher self. As my daughter and I were about to leave the museum, I remembered that I wanted to show her the grand painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware in the new American Wing. We did a quick about-face and returned to the galleries. The painting is impressive, and I would never be able to attempt, nor do I have a desire to attempt a painting of this magnitude. As we made our way back through the American wing, my eyes alighted on a tiny sculpture of the famous Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, wearing her fairy costume. Her face had an expression of pure bliss, captured by the artist. I was immediately brought into consciousness of the spirit within myself that is capable of this connection to sacred mystery...the feeling that raises us above the weariness of the world. As an artist, I too, possess the ability to touch people in this way, and I am truly grateful for this gift. This little sculpture brought me into awareness of the power of art and artists. It was magic!