Since seeing Jonsi in concert on Sunday, I've been listening to his music non stop, and found this song an exceptionally fitting soundtrack to my thoughts on human mirrors. It is dedicated to my spiritful friend Elizabeth with beautiful feet who composed many a great soundtrack for my wanderings.
Wake up, comb my hair
Making food disappear
Riding bikes, making out
Elephants running down
You and I ran away, got lost in the eve
Saw the most colourful fireworks
Every time, everyone, everything's full of life
Everyday, everywhere, people are so alive
We should all be (Oh Oh Oh) alive!
We should all be (Oh Oh Oh) alive!
Horfandi, þegjandi, tala við, skríðandi
Dreymandi, strjúka af, koma við ekki má
Mála á líkama, spilað á renglandi
Hlaupandi! Leikandi!
Get it on, get it on, fucking on, spúandi
Get it on, bring it on, fucking it, kæfandi
We should all be (Oh Oh Oh) alive!
We should all be (Oh Oh Oh) alive!
We should all be (Oh Oh Oh) alive!
Let's not stop, let's go and live!
I see you're colourful : I see you in the trees
I see you're spiritful : You're in the breeze
I see it in your hands : Tree fingers through a bean
I see you in the sand : Roll down the stream
I see you in the trees : I see you're colourful
I see you in the breeze : You're spiritful
Tree fingers through a bean : I see it in your hands
You're rolling down the stream : You're in the sand
I see you're colourful : I see you in the trees
I see you're spiritful : You're in the breeze
I see it in your hands : Tree fingers through a bean
I see you in the sand : Roll down the stream
I see you in the trees : I see you're colourful
I see you in the breeze : You're spiritful
Tree fingers through a bean : I see it in your hands
You're rolling down the stream : You're in the sand
I see you're colourful : I see you in the trees
I see you're spiritful : You're in the breeze
I see it in your hands : Tree fingers through a bean
I see you in the sand : Roll down the stream
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Human Mirrors
A few months ago, we participated in an art show for our dear friend Jayme . Partly by virtue of our friendship and partly because of the character of her art, it was the most personal and touching experience with art that I am likely to ever have.
Over the period of almost a year, Jayme listened to the stories of eighteen individuals and painted what she heard - abstract portraits of their inward journeys and movements of soul. I walked around the room covered with goose bumps. Many of the people she painted were friends and community members, people with whom I eat, laugh, study, party and generally live life with on a weekly basis. Yet Jayme's art opened a window to their inner worlds that seemed all the more sacred because it involved her own response to what she saw.
Jayme's gift to her subjects was that listened to each person for as long as they chose to talk, and then reflected what she heard through artistic expression. Here is you, she said. Here is what I saw. It was her gift of truly seeing these eighteen unique people that gave me goose bumps. Here is you, she said, and you are beautiful. Not in a rosy, pretty way, but in a messy, sometimes bloody-red, sometimes pitch-black way. Glorious. Magnificent.
Ever since Jayme's show, I've thought a lot about truly seeing people. The bursting life and glory of her paintings surrounds me every day, if I look deep enough. Even without looking deep enough, the glimpses of human beauty regularly cause me to catch my breath. Not only artists see others from more angles and in more colors than those others see themselves. Some may disagree, but I'm inclined to believe that we all construct our mutual identities through the spoken and unspoken messages we communicate to one another. We become what we are seen for - from the kid who flunks out of school because he keeps hearing he is stupid to the woman who radiates from the inside because her lover can't stop saying she's beautiful. You know the saying that behind every successful man is a woman? I'd say that behind every successful, happy, fulfilled person is someone who thinks that person is wonderful - and tells them so. I wonder sometimes if this is a big part of why people crave romantic love and partnership - to be truly seen and well-reflected, to be the hero of someone's narrative, to look into a human mirror and see a character we may want to identify with. So what does it look like to pick up the paintbrush and mix some colors? Could it begin with something as simple as saying not just "thank you" but "I think you are"?
Over the period of almost a year, Jayme listened to the stories of eighteen individuals and painted what she heard - abstract portraits of their inward journeys and movements of soul. I walked around the room covered with goose bumps. Many of the people she painted were friends and community members, people with whom I eat, laugh, study, party and generally live life with on a weekly basis. Yet Jayme's art opened a window to their inner worlds that seemed all the more sacred because it involved her own response to what she saw.
Jayme's gift to her subjects was that listened to each person for as long as they chose to talk, and then reflected what she heard through artistic expression. Here is you, she said. Here is what I saw. It was her gift of truly seeing these eighteen unique people that gave me goose bumps. Here is you, she said, and you are beautiful. Not in a rosy, pretty way, but in a messy, sometimes bloody-red, sometimes pitch-black way. Glorious. Magnificent.
Ever since Jayme's show, I've thought a lot about truly seeing people. The bursting life and glory of her paintings surrounds me every day, if I look deep enough. Even without looking deep enough, the glimpses of human beauty regularly cause me to catch my breath. Not only artists see others from more angles and in more colors than those others see themselves. Some may disagree, but I'm inclined to believe that we all construct our mutual identities through the spoken and unspoken messages we communicate to one another. We become what we are seen for - from the kid who flunks out of school because he keeps hearing he is stupid to the woman who radiates from the inside because her lover can't stop saying she's beautiful. You know the saying that behind every successful man is a woman? I'd say that behind every successful, happy, fulfilled person is someone who thinks that person is wonderful - and tells them so. I wonder sometimes if this is a big part of why people crave romantic love and partnership - to be truly seen and well-reflected, to be the hero of someone's narrative, to look into a human mirror and see a character we may want to identify with. So what does it look like to pick up the paintbrush and mix some colors? Could it begin with something as simple as saying not just "thank you" but "I think you are"?
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