This week I’ve been in need of a little awe and wonder. They say that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. It did for me the other day when I wondered into a bookshop, not feeling very well but wanting to be in a familiar environment. Books have always been my friends. One found me, called to me from the shelf.
Phosphorescence. An enticing name and appealing because of its association with the sea and mysterious phenomenon. The rest of the title was even more intriguing: on awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark. I peeked inside and was instantly entranced - a description of holding living light.
Not wanting to add another book to my overcrowded bookshelf, I straightaway ordered it from the library and to my delight it arrived on the mobile library bus two days later. I’ve been dipping into its wisdom, soothing my physical and existential pain with descriptions of holding light within, silence and ordinary wonder.
While backed by science and statistics, this book speaks to the poet within, the soul’s need for refreshment and solace. To be humbled by awe inspiring climatic events, star filled nights, ocean swimming and deep silence. It has a chapter on “the Overview Effect”, the astronauts’ view of the ‘blue dot’, the earth as seen from space, something that I too have made a theme of in my paper art worlds.
I was reminded of Julia Cameron’s book The Artists Way and the need for art to pay attention to the ordinary wonders in the world. To give them form, to really notice and document life’s everyday beauty. I thought of the surprise I felt when finding an astonishingly purple flower climbing around a power pole on a city street in Brisbane. How it was so stunning in its simplicity and beauty that I had to paint it.
Poets and artists look for the soul, the essence of their subject. Poetry captures in a few condensed words what everyday conversation has no words for. This distilling is an alchemy, a transformation of inspiration into the visible and audible. Beethovans’s Moonlight Sonata has all the longing and pathos of heartbreak and yet it soars and lifts the spirit. It is inspired and it continues to inspire.
Looking for the beauty in the everyday is part of art-full living. It elevates the spirit, reminding us of our interconnection with other living beings. The joy that is captured in these moments is translated into words, sounds, pictures. It carries a vibrational energy that is a legacy to be passed down through the ages, touching others in ways we could never dream of. It is ours to find and savour, to paint and draw and write about, to photograph and stitch and sculpt and share with others.
To check out the Phosphorescence book by Julia Baird, click here.
