Day 6. Freedom

“Unencumbered” 8×10, oil on canvas, framed.

This painting took lots of different twists and turns in a dance not unsimilar to the one depicted in its final iteration. Whereas sometimes I know exactly what I want to work on in a painting session, today’s was all about just seeing what would happen. How freeing it is to be able to change one’s mind, go another direction. How freeing it is not to be weighed down by absolute certainty. On this January 6 I am reflecting on freedom. 

I am, as so many are, troubled by the state of things: The ever-present threat of violence, the vitriol with which we speak of and to one another,  the forces that profit from and delight in our divisions. And, as always, I’m looking to my beloved birds for insight. Today’s painting and poem is a reflection on freedom. I wanted the first stanza to feel heavy and uniform like a march and the second more like the birds I’ve depicted– dancing and weightless. 

Unencumbered 

Hatred is heavy

with insistence 

on its own authority

in it we are grounded,

weighed down 

with its steady, 

persistent march.

Look at the birds of the air 

          neither sowing discord

or reaping distinction

          gathering with each other

not in barns

          (with their closed doors–

          solid wood and latches)

but in airy skies

          where colors escape constraint, 

and careless clouds watch their

          uninhibited, weightless

dance