Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Art & the Luminous Darkness


Dear Friends,

I will be on sabbatical until mid-August – a time of renewal and refreshment.  For the first two months, I am returning to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  San Miguel is in the high desert mountains in the middle of Mexico, south of Guanajuato and north of Mexico City.  No, it is not on the beach.  San Miguel is a seventeenth century town with a large artist community and a number of expats from North America, Great Britain, and Australia, approximately ten percent of the population.  I will pray, paint, and play in San Miguel, a place I have continued to return since my last sabbatical in 2008.  I will renew my study of Spanish and reconnect with friends.

Since speaking at the Camp Mikell Folk Art Weekend, I have been playing with the idea of Art and the Luminous Darkness, an idea of authentic art able to contain both intense joy and deep sadness.  I have some ideas what that looks like – like a great piece of art, or poetry or music that can take you to great heights and make you weep with joy and sorrow with neither cancelling the other.  As an artist, I know that shadows are need to bring depth to a painting; and I know that there is beauty in imperfection.  How all this will play out in my thinking this sabbatical, I do not know.  I ask for your prayers.  It feels like a soul-journey, understanding that God is with us in both the darkness and the light; embracing it is part of the work of our souls and falling every more deeply into God.

I hope to come back renewed and ready for the next part of the journey.  I will be holding you in my prayers.  I am intensely grateful for you and your deliberateness to be a faithful community of the Beloved.

Much love and peace,
 
Mac