The Moon has been my constant friend over the years. “Friend” as in having a steady, reliable light source at night. I’ve painted many times outside in the dark in charcoal, oils and watercolors. The night that inspired this piece was a normal day of chores. While taking out the garbage to the west side of my home, glancing up through the seagrape leaves was the half moon. Florida winter nights have deep cobalt to ultramarine blue skies. They are layers of color depths going upwards.
Yarka Russian watercolors is the medium for this painting.
It’s no secret to anyone who reads me knows I’m mystical in all I do. It is my natural point of view. Adding knowledge to this mysticism, I have read mostly wisdom books throughout my life. Archetypal imagery should be course to study in art but no college I went to offered it. So I spent time reading up on it on my own. The Moon is one of the most powerful archetypal images. It is certainly one that speaks to me.
The trappings of esoteric knowledge can tie up a person’s brain following secrets while trying to net answers from a butterfly. It’s all ‘there’ for us to see. As I understand it, the level of sight and sensory awareness provides the level of receiving the ‘all that’s out there”. The mystic can get very lost. I have been lost on this trail too from time to time. It has been called “loony” after our beloved Moon fever.
For me to unravel and move onward in my life, I read the Bible. Out of all the books of wisdom, it is more reliable than my friend, the Moon. It isn’t archetypal. It is ancient, classical and present. I don’t understand the Bible anymore than I understand the Moon but I don’t stop looking at it for light.
“In thy light do we see light” Psalm 36
When I first absorbed this passage I was on the bus going to college in 1973. It was the most unusually existential scripture verse I could relate to. For a visual artist, sight is paramount. So for light fully dependent on a divine choice pulled the safety net out from under me. And yet it also freed me to allowing my G-d to show me what to paint. This time, it was the Moon through the seagrape leaves while taking out the garbage.