by J. Douglas Thompson | Apr 24, 2023 | General Information
Wondering while Wandering…
…an artist’s limp toward finding ‘Radiance Through the Rain’
‘May the Rain of Suffering Soften Our Hearts,
Seeping Radiance to Our Thirsty Places.’
J. Douglas Thompson© 2022
Gratitude… Memorial to Paris*
The artist comes
Hair-breadths advance of dawning’s light
Laid back saunter, goatee then
Long held desire, finally born
Seine’s left bank, awash in gilded morning’s light
Misty drizzle worked the night shift
Fades and heads for bed
Cobalt, yellow just arrived, punching in right on time.
Reflecting pools, splashing feet
Steam swirls up
Gossamer ballerinas off cobblestone
Breezes waft, scent of fresh croissant
Baked warm honey bronze, butter drips
Cafetière à piston forces drive, pressing down, toward French roast
Caffeine dark with fresh release
Grounded whiffs from Latin climes
Mornings bliss, again arrives
City of arts.
I stop, inhale, turn, then sniff
Market stirs
Purveyors amble near, from far
Leather classics bound, inlaid on canopied carts.
Floral constellations flash and blaze
Created brilliance radiates
Redemptive tear, it falls
Intricate, so eloquent
With great design it calls
Ignored by most
Day shouts to day, see wisdom here, and
Night by night shows knowledge deep, then
Florals curl and head to sleep.
Young love glides by
Their hands entwined
Others rowing on the Seine
Dripping drops like gilded stones
Circles of concentric float
Vanish into currents deep.
Piaf croons low
Old love she sighs
Long long since lost
Stumbling, shuffling sadness comes
Fiercely grasping warm baguette
Gauloises haze surrounds beret
Circling blue in upward draft
Gently turns and softly says
Seasons, ‘mon jeune homme,’ don’t lightly take
C’est la vie, but then again, it’s very short
So live them well
Each and every day
Today.
Notre Dame, her bells ring wake
Human’s day begins to stir
Chorus wafts cross abstract swells
Grandest organ growls bonjour
Sorbonne’s youth, French chic, blow in
Quickly stand and kisses give
Café au lait, a cigarette
Philosophize, then au revoir
To, live let live.
The artist wanders west then north
Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées
Boulevard amour, at times
Concentric circles instead enshrine
Blowing mad cacophony
Passing fast, without a glance
Architectures high climax
They race, and miss, just feet away
Auguste Rodin his
‘Thinker’ waits, a quiet garden just aside
Bronze patinas smooth, amaze
Song of Solomon, carved in white
The Kiss, its deep embrace in marbles grace
Others dear, are worth a year, a month per chance
Time to give them but a glance.
The Louvre, she calls
Impressions wait
It’s not too late
Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Suerat
Mona, Venus, and Versailles
Even Eiffel, don’t be shy
Across the ville toward Montmartre
To catch a glance of Sacré-Coeur
And peek as artists paint
Wet oil moments of fleeting dreams
Gone so far, gone too fast.
Mais Oui, a lingering lunch of French paté, a Bordeaux dry with warmth of bread, and then…too soon, Ah Paris, I leave you love, yes, once again.
Au revoir.
You stole and guard my painter’s soul
Yes there remains the broken piece
That left a longing ache too long.
Yet in mind’s eye, lives on so strong.
In early years, months of days were given to live within her strong French embrace, and then through decades long, I’ve circled back to come again, each time my heart rekindled with the spirit of true living free – a dance outside the lines – how rich and blessed I’ve been.
Desires wandering heart He gives
Again affords, a nonstop flow
Never once to be out done!
It’s impossible, you know!
I’m thankful, stirred through the rich sauce of nostalgias reminiscence, and yet somewhat thoughtful too, how oft in life I’ve buzz-sawed my mornings, leaving my mouth caked sawdust dry and spurned my months with only skin-deep encounter.
Depth demands circling back, hovering above, chewing well, swirling around and over, time after time, whether toward the sensual or spiritual. Art and spiritual disciplines have this common golden thread to know them well.
Time, silence, solitude, reflection, rest, repentance, practice, patience, repetitiveness and yes, surrender – all requirements of growth toward depth.
If I am to know intimately the one who calls me son, friend, brother and whom I gratefully call Abba or Aslan, the one who names me new, passionately and personally – the artist above all – (his claim, not mine) – I must go and sit in the garden, yes, alongside ‘The Thinker,’ not leaving my brain at the door.
This, a rational passionate journey in mystical relationship – not pie in the sky, by and by. If otherwise, like the man from Damascus, most miserable, deceived and devoid of hope, I might just as well take the ultimate step off the proverbial cliff and leap into cosmic darkness.
If one seeks with the cup of one’s heart full and splashing over, or dry, cracked as dust, you will find, the call floats out, a promise proffered. Then He waits, asking, toasting, slow the pace, ponder, sip, swirl, drink long and deep – come weary one – rest awaits – thirst satiated.
What if?
What if His claims are really true?
Would it affect my vision of beauty and wonder?
Would I, should I, could I
Inhale with fuller anticipation
Taste and chew with greater intensity
Roll the velvet wine much longer
View with fuller wonder
Listen with greater clarity
Touch with softer tenderness
Wait with greater patience
Give with greater playfulness
Love with deeper sacrifice?
Worth a wonder and a wander, a look to see
Sure beats watchin’ bad TV
Provides a touch of hope in me!
And now to you, old friend Paris
Bonsoir – again – my – mon ami!
*Excerpt from ‘Radiance Through the Rain’
Paris in the Rain
by J. Douglas Thompson | Apr 11, 2023 | General Information
Wondering while Wandering…
…an artist’s limp toward finding ‘Radiance Through the Rain’
‘May the Rain of Suffering Soften Our Hearts,
Seeping Radiance to Our Thirsty Places.’
- Douglas Thompson© 2022
Opportunity knocks occasionally as requests arrive to speak at events regarding ‘Why I paint what I paint.’ The following are my notes from a short talk I gave at McMaster Divinity School, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, January 17, 2023. Various parts of this are found in my introductory sections here in this blog. Once again, in this and several blogs to come, I’m laying a foundation of my journey as a creative/painter. I will of course get into the actual acts of putting acrylic paint to canvas or board as we go along in future posts. I prefer to call these posts: ‘Thought Collections on Art and Life through an Artist’s Eyes’ rather than ‘blogs.’
McMaster Divinity School Talk
As I’ve quoted before on various occasions, C.S. Lewis, author of “The Chronicles of Narnia” and Oxford professor stated: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because I see everything by it.” Prolific author, artist, and apologist, G.K. Chesterton, friend and colleague of Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have together given us the wonder of using artistic imagination as a means of pointing to truth with their nuanced writings! As you’ve no doubt picked up, this too is my chosen world-view.
Chesterton writes, “To be thankful is the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. Thanklessness, then, must be the lowest form of thought, and ingratitude is discontentment, bankrupted of wonder.”
Welcome to my studio!
Here, working through a painting is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding and for me a spiritual act. It is not a trite plaything, but involves intense involvement on many levels. This is why my wife warns me by ringing a little bell before entering the studio. I am off in a far country, wandering multiple paths and any sudden interruption can result in a tailspin of PTSD over-reaction. The bell helps me come back to a single point.
The actual act of putting paint to canvas is almost subconscious as simultaneously disparate thoughts and techniques dance their many forms from my imagination through my painting tools, brushes, towels or rags.
Some of those thoughts meander back to my childhood surrounded in institutional and family abuses that occurred living for over eleven years in an iron-fisted enclosed community in western Canada. The trauma from that time has affected my life and work until this day. My early paintings reflected that dark side and were an expression of unresolved issues that presented themselves with symptoms such as depression and anger. Today, after many years of hard work, my life and paintings attempt at presenting more light and hope.
John Ruskin, the famed British water colorist and artistic companion of JMW Turner said,“ The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.”
My purpose therefore as an artist, is to ‘Make Aware’…to encourage people to take the time to truly savor and care for what they see. The thought that part of my personal act of making art is to be a conduit of pointing toward the Creator is humbling at best.
I personally am a follower of who C.S. Lewis describes as ‘Aslan’ or ‘the Word,’ one who was and yet still is. John 1:1-3 is chapter and verse from the New Testament part of the Bible.“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” This of course refers to Jesus of Nazareth! The transcendent God becoming flesh to enter with us even now, into our deepest pain and joy!
Caring for the creation as good ecologists is a mandate given to all human kind. I stand with that as part of my faith, to see the natural world as something to be cherished and nurtured…we are to be good ‘gardeners’ in the broadest sense of the word.
I am a wanderer…
I am a broken struggler…
I am in process…
I am a fighter – I’ve chosen hope, when despair attempted complete desolation…
I am thoughtful – pushing back against the obnoxious simplistic…
I am an artist who observes and portrays beauty, both darkness and light…
I am a poet – a lover of all the senses and who gains freedom in savoring them well…
I am called to shed light – and there is light!
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning states, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes — The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”
Soli Deo Gloria (SDG) is Latin for ‘Glory to God alone.’ Used by artists such as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, it is added, signifying the work was produced as an act of praising God. I’ve copied their idea and have had many who’ve asked what the letters SDG mean when placed near my signature.
For me, each painting is a small human attempt at reflecting light and expressing gratitude back to the light giver, Jesus Christ, the only incarnation of the creator God in human history.
My hope is that some of my ‘I am’s’ above will push through the rim of life’s mist with the gleam of atmospheric light. Maybe it will encourage some struggler in the darkest depths to persevere while seeking help. For others, it will at least give some insight into my purposes of ‘making aware.’
Part of this is journey was producing a 160 page full colour coffee table book, a compilation of some anecdotal life recollections – Psalms, if you will. There are 61 short essays and/or poems found on the facing pages from the over 100 paintings included in the book. This ‘blog’ has the same title as the book. ‘Radiance Through the Rain.‘
