Possibility through Permanence

 


 I have had this painting for some time now, and I do not yet feel it is finished.  I am not satisfied because even though I know what it means for me, I know other people will not feel the same way towards it. I want the viewer not to know my every detail of myself but yet experience me through this painting, or at least me through the way I see, and feel the world . It is pretty but it does not yet have the depth I need it to be. This is not like the work of Georgia O’Keefe, but it is my style, and my form of truth. Yet through the study of the painting of Mt. Cezane and other artworks of O’Keeffe I recognize that I need to work through my painting carefully with intensity, intention, and decision, so that my painting invokes in me every time the feeling of what these mountains signify and what they embrace. The notan in the bottom half is too light and without dark , therefore it loses meaning, and it feels blurry, without perspective.


The painting is of Atalaya mountain range, and of the foreground which it embraces. I call it Possibility through Permanence. Through these past few years I have felt lost at times, and forgot my home in the light I saw it as a child. I no longer was grateful for the mountain that looked over me as a child. A beautiful mountain that fed the valley where I lived, near the river. It is called Mt. Diablo. 


It was not until I moved to Santa Fe, that I learned to appreciate the mountains through the permanence that they create in which they embrace us and hold us steady when things get rough. Atalaya through all its seasons bloomed, faded, regrew, and always remained, while I remained here. I appreciate its beauty but also its embrace –in which it never made me feel unwelcomed. A mountain range had never made me feel more safe. With the comfort of Atalaya and the acceptance of where I was in life, everything slowly began to bloom for me.  When I trusted myself, that I was in good hands.


When I returned back home I saw Mt. Diablo for all that it was, and also that which it was not. Mt. Diablo had no faults for what was wrong, it only embraced me, and allowed me to be in its presence. It was never a more burning violet as when I returned in the summer. I am grateful for the mountains that have embraced me in life. Their permanence has offered me too much possibility, no matter where I go. 


That is what I want to portray in my painting.

Any thoughts?


By:

Diana Hidalgo


Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshNovember 27, 2022 at 7:27 PM

    It's a beautiful painting, but I think you're right in your assessment. There's a beautiful essay by the Japanese philosopher Dogen called "Mountains and Waters Sutra" in which mountains are described as "walking":

    "Mountains’ walking is just like human walking. Accordingly, do not doubt mountains’ walking even though it does not look the same as human walking. The buddha ancestors’ words point to walking. This is fundamental understanding. You should penetrate these words.

    Because green mountains walk, they are permanent. Although they walk more swiftly than the wind, someone in the mountains does not realize or understand it. “In the mountains” means the blossoming of the entire world. People outside the mountains do not realize or understand the mountains walking. Those without eyes to see mountains cannot realize, understand, see, or hear this as it is.

    If you doubt mountains’ walking, you do not know your own walking; it is not that you do not walk, but that you do not know or understand your own walking. Since you do know your own walking, you should fully know the green mountains’ walking.

    Green mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. You are neither sentient nor insentient. At this moment, you cannot doubt the green mountains’ walking."

    The whole thing is worth reading.

    ReplyDelete

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