| Change and Completion
In an interview Pablo Picasso was once asked, “How do you know when to finish a painting?”
“When it's done,” Picasso answered.
There comes a time, maybe also place, when a painting is complete. Done. When adding anything more, even one small stroke would reduce the whole. This is true for most of our endeavors.
Newborns instinctively know when they are finished nursing – for now . Notice that Picasso was discussing the completion of one work, not completing his career.
I did an extensive research paper of Picasso's Guernica when I was in school. When I did my study, Guernica was at MoMA in NYC, so I was privileged to consult the work itself many times. Now it is in Madrid at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Guernica is one of the most important works of art of the 20th century, so I have included two links below that show images of the mural and also give good background information.
My own research work included making small tracings of the many studies Picasso made in preparation for Guernica . Some of Picasso's preparations are complete works of art in themselves; others are sketches where we can see Picasso struggling to achieve a goal. One of his most poignant artistic journeys is his trail to the figure known as the “Weeping Woman.”
Among the many understandings I learned from my research, was the idea that a work may be complete, but that a new work, another one can be begun to better exemplify one's original intention.
For me, Guernica is the greatest painting ever for conveying the horrors of war. It is a masterpiece.
We define a day as the earth's complete revolution around the sun. As you may know, I have a painting series, Genesis : Sunset-Sunrise where I use the words (letters) from Genesis 1-2:7 for most of the strokes. I've had plenty of time and physical painting experience with these texts! Clearly, in Genesis chapter 1, time is defined as the completion of a significant act or creation. This is clearly seen, since during the first days of creation, there was no sun. There was “evening”, which in biblical time stands for an ending of one “day” and the beginning of another, but there was no sun.
Here's the King James translation of the Hebrew:
“4 . And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. ”
OK. No sun, but Light and as an artist, I have to note that without light not only would be have no art, we couldn't see!
Continuing with Genesis :
“6 And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.”
Clearly, it is not light and dark that defines the end and beginning of the second day, but the completion of an act of creation!
So time can be defined by one's creative acts. We do that easily, when we define time saying, “When I was in high school…”, “When I worked at XYZ Company…” or “When the kids were young…” That is all very creative! Learning, as in high school is creative as it creates new understandings, working is creative as one uses one's knowledge to impact the world and also create more understanding and finally raising children is a blessing and a humongous learning experience as well as a mission from the Lord (this includes adopted children, foster children and those we teach).
As I write this, we are approaching the Julian calendar year of 2007. We are, as usual, at endings and beginnings. Let us take stock of ourselves. Plan our creative work. Pray and determine how we will speak to others (if you don't think speech is amazingly creative reread the Genesis passages above!) and how we will conduct ourselves. Plan how we will communicate and imapact our society. Sometimes, as Picasso implied, the creative, or artistic act is knowing when to stop.
Tomorrow's a new day. A new day for painting – but, more importantly a new day for creating one's life. May yours be a blessing and be blessed! -- Judy Rey
For more about Guernica please use these links below.
Click here: Guernica (painting) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click here: Treasures of the World | Guernica
December 26, 2006 |
