The Getty Museum in L.A. is showing an exhibit of Rembrandt's sketches called "Telling the Difference" . It is a study in understanding the difference between a master and his students. Between confidence and tentative, careful attention to detail. Some are true Rembrandts, the others, works of his students. The way to discern the difference is in that very scarcity... the confidence in a single stroke to emit an emotion. That is all.
I remember my junior high art teacher scolding me for using every bit of space on the canvas. I did not understand the whole "less is more" theory at the time, and am not sure I fully follow that lesson still. What is intriguing to me about Rembrandt's sketches is the way he uses the blankness. The white space represents something - most often, light.
(Rembrandt's Study of Hendrickje Sleeping: The British Museum)
In this sketch of his sleeping mistress, the whole of the ink is less than the sum of her parts. She, for all practical purposes, in Rembrandt's eyes, is mostly light: The absence of color: beautiful space. Space used to bother me. Now I see space as hopeful. Possibility. Love. I think perhaps his love for Hendrickje made this point more poignant in his study of her in her most vulnerable state: sleep. Look at her hair. Her gown. Her face. So much light. Blank space on the canvas. It seems to represent the glory of his love for her in some way. No doubt the real sunlight reflected in this way, but why not see it through his eyes. He loves this woman. He loves that she loves him. He loves her "light".
How much light do you and I radiate to those who love us? In my mind, I picture my loved ones, and see some light, yes. I venture to make the claim that I will look for more "light" in them.
Y2k didn’t happen, but 9.11 did. All that worrying had to go someplace I guess. Perhaps this is a good point as we move into the next decade. Out of the “oughts”. My Pawpaw used to refer to the first decade of the 20th century with “oughts”. “Back in ought 8” he’d start out... We never did that in the 2ks. Wonder why? Anyway hello to the teens – or I guess we’ll be in the Tweens first, then the teens?
We certainly are more number conscious these days, what with y2k and 9.11, and my friend Mr. 2020 was discussing on Moon Moo & You Radio show yesterday how goals and visions are two distinctly different things. A goal is when one sets out to accomplish x by time y with method z. A vision is…. Well it’s just a whole nother thing. Visions are the stuff of mysticism and inner happiness and all things possible within us and with the universe as a whole. Visions are not cut down to a pie slice or algebraic equation. Visions are boundless. Googledy google to infinity-ness. Visions are not a number.
So 10 years ago I was about 30 lbs lighter and I was a smoker. I was single and had no kids. Today I am smoke free and married with a beautiful little boy. I could never have dreamed it. My own family was not in my “vision”. As I met the year 2000, I was pretty much resolved to being an old spinster with my little dog forever. Something changed in me after 9.11. I was re-routed. I felt a stronger purpose. I became more social and more open to possibility. That is what that day taught me. The terrorists never dreamed they would awaken so many souls. I now know that “love” is a verb.
Love into the next decade, and may it be your best ever!
