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SKETCHES
- The WhyART Newsletter |
| Welcome to SKETCHES, Michael Gerrish's WhyART.com newsletter. I offer thoughts to stretch your mind and spur your actions to produce positives for you and those you touch. Author Daniel Pinkwater said, "I believe it is impossible to make sense of life in this world except through art." Artist Francis Bacon said, "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." This "talking head" sees truth in both statements; let's start making sense by exploring and expanding the mysteries which surround us! | |
| Hope:
that thing with feathers... "Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing." Robert Burns "Come in, she said, I'll give you shelter from the storm." Bob Dylan "Our work defends hope, the most precious homeland for any soul.
" My wife Carol has many wonderful qualities; one of her best is that she cares about the underdogs of the world, big and little. As a result, we have planters and feeders on our city row house's decks which feed the birds year round. One particularly cold morning she called me to a rear window to spy on a little bird at the feeder. It wasn't moving, and she was concerned. We both stared at it for awhile. Just as I was about to go out and investigate, it fluffed its feathers, and hunkered down against the Hudson River wind. "It's going to be OK", I said. "It's just found shelter to wait out the storm". I hoped I was right, and left for school. When I returned that evening, the bird was gone. My role as a teacher has changed dramatically over the past 2 or 3 years. One thing, however, remains constant: my desire to offer a homeland, or at least a shelter for all who enter my classroom. It isn't always easy to do this, but it's what I hope to share. Sometimes the students enter full of positive energy and health, and sometimes the energy they radiate is darker and worrisome. I open the door to all and try to listen before I speak. Sometimes that is hard to do...but it is necessary. I don't want to scare away someone who has come seeking shelter, or a refill of hope. Artists have a natural bond with hope. We labor in the darkness to discover and portray the light of universal truth. Sometimes we get lucky in life; sometimes we occupy a pauper's grave. What we do, however, is so important that in the end, how we end up is irrelevant. Most teachers feel the same way about what they do, too. About that bird at the feeder...I choose to believe that after our deck-side respite it found another shelter, and eventually a place to call home. That's my hope. What's yours? Part Two...Until I Find You "Until I Find You": that's the name of John Irving's latest novel. I've been a fan of John Irving's writing for a very long time. Travel and tattoos "figure" large in this novel; I guess you might say it's ink about ink. Like most of Irving's writing, it is long, but it is a satisfying read. As winter proceeds onward, it might be a good book to carry you into spring...until you find another. I'm also reading Traveling Mercies by Anne
Lamott. The traveling described in this interrelated collection of
short pieces is different than in Irving's novel, but it leaves a mark on
the reader as permanent as one of Daughter Alice's tattoos. Check it out. "Art
is the physical link between one generation and another." | |
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Sketches
is a free newsletter of WhyART.com and is available by subscription.
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at any time. I appreciate your thoughtful comments.
Michael Gerrish • 159 1st Street • Troy, NY 12180 •
(518)266-0304 • ©WhyART.com 2006 | |
