Window paintings......

Until my junior year at NYU, I knew Yoko Ono only to be the controversial wife of John Lennon. We were required to attend her show at a SoHo gallery. I had no expectations what so ever. I had heard her work described as Dada, others called it Avant Garde, I have heard her say she wasn't aware she was anything but herself....Having not seen her work previously, I went into the gallery thinking I had an open mind, once inside, more than my mind was opened. It changed the way I saw everything.

Her infamous art work, "Play it by Trust", a large white chess board with all white chess set, was displayed in the center of the room. On the walls, hung pieces that, were it not for thier titles, would have been easily overlooked. Amazing how words change everything. There was a knotted rope on a wooden board titled "To be Appreciated when Broken".....a group of skelton keys hung on indiviual hooks, "Keys to open the Skies"....and then there was a glass window pane that rested beside a tag that read "Painting made by the Night".

For years, every time I looked out the window, I thought of the frame which holds countless of paintings created by the life on the other side of that glass pane, and the balance of the lives lead between these walls. The past 12 years I have watched my children crawl, walk their first steps, ride their bikes, get on their buses, come back home...I have watched the colors of the seasons, trick or treaters fill my porch, the white snow fall deep,the sun come up, the sun bow down, the stars multiply at night, the silhouettes of the windchimes, the baskets hang full and cascade like waterfalls of flowers.... and for just a few precious times, I have watched my grandparents pull up to my driveway and come to my door....and I remember from the outside looking in, my husband waiting for me by that window to get home, and I, immediately knowing my grandfather had passed by the sadness that shaped his stance.

Last night I sat with Clementine. The Clementis that outlines and drapes my porch casts shadows that reach in and climb my walls. I rest my head up against the ledge and struggle to quiet my thoughts and just be. I wonder what must have inspired Ms. Ono, what could it have been to see that clear pane as the perfect transparent canvas.....could she have thought all life is art? Could it be that true translucency can only exist within the moment? That capturing it on real canvas with paint is only the art of illusion? That what is real is Art? That Art is found in the moment? That being present is Art? Could it be that how we view the world around us is ART? That there is Art to living? That there is Art to interacting, That reflection is Art? That there is Art in just being? Could it be that while her husband thought that "life is what happens to you while you are busy making plans" she might have been thinking Art is what happens to you when you are experiencing life? That if Art = Life then Life= Art....
I think back to my art history classes, to Marcel Duchamps and his urinal, his Large Glass, his bicycle wheel, and his love of chess, how he quit making art to play chess....and his piece "portrait of chess players"...and I begin to see the influence....The DADA movement was coined the anti art movement. I never really felt comfortable when I was young, with this art movement because I had such profound respect for the craft, the artistry, the mastery....the thought of stripping it down and questioning what is art was scary for me. I didn't think I understood much of anything to really question to that level.....
And then life happened while I was busy making plans, and then I was left to question everything, and try to find the sense, the humor, the connections, the humanity, the art in life.....
Then it hits me, anti art is an impossibilty. There is art in everything, and in everyone...craft is important, mastery is important, but questioning, contemplation, experience, committment, expression, love, perspective, it's all equally important as well...you need to know and understand your material, and your limits.....Art with all it's layers, is still incandescent.

Perhaps the best way to walk into the room is without expectations, to be open to the experience....
Perhaps the best way to view a painting of a night sky is to look out the window............
Perhaps the best way to see keys is as the means to open the skies, and
perhaps the best way to see Art is as a means to open the mind............

Play it by trust, to be appreciated when broken..........