What do you see when you look at a piece of art. Philosopher Debasish Mridha believes “Through art we see the reflection of the inner world of an artist.”
And when that artist happens to be your child…whose quiet introspection can sometimes keep others at a distance…the view is extraordinarily precious.
Some time ago my daughter, Diana Rose was commissioned to create a special piece for our Greenfield Congregational Church. The piece was to be created in a day…in the social hall of the church…so anyone who cared to watch could see the creative process in real time.
I wasn’t sure how she would feel about that level of exposure. I imagined it might add to the vulnerability of her experience of making art.
She agreed…but said yes anyway.
Undaunted, Diana Rose showed up with her brushes and paints, propped up her canvas and began to paint. Others might have brought an easel and pulled up a seat for the hours ahead - in this case nearly 5 would transpire as this piece came to life. But Diana Rose chose to sit on the floor - legs a kimbo - inches from the unfolding creation. It was as if she wanted to stay close and connected to her art as she worked.
The piece is titled “Know no boundaries”. The pastors who commissioned it, Alida Warde and David Rowe, had gotten to know Diana Rose through the youth group and annual service trips to Appalachia that she would participate in. I had seen how Diana Rose embraced those adventures to the inner hallows of West Virginia and Tennessee. How she that connected with the people there…people living on the edges of mountains, some struggling to eke out a living, who loved to sing and were so grateful for the help that these young adults brought in their moment of need.
Watching your child grow is a blessing. Watching her create is an even more precious experience. Seeing what they choose to focus on…what they add…what they leave out…how they express a thought…construct a view…figure out how they “see”… what they want to say…is a wonder to behold.
I have been watching and wondering …and marveling at Diana Rose’s unique form of artistry for the last 25 years of my life.
I grew up thinking art was easy. My dad was a natural artist. He could sketch anything and his artistry brought many things to life for me…the clean lines of a boat sailing on the water…the sleek motion of steam locomotive roaring toward us…the pleasing shaped that make up the summer cottage where we all loved to gather.
He, too, was a introvert. Quiet…distant…and yet particularly warm and loving in those moments when I would come to watch him draw. He made it look easy. And so I, too, would come to love drawing. He encouraged me and I kept drawing in school and was even told I had talent. I felt like an artist. That is until I got to college and my insecurities about wanting my art to look “good” and be “perfect” came up against a teacher who abhorred precision and discouraged the quest for perfection. True artists have the ability to focus on the unfolding of a vision without fretting about the need for it to be defined ahead of time. I moved onto different forms of creative expression. But I never forgot those positive lessons at my dad’s side.
I guess that is why I felt so close to my child when she would spend hours drawing. I supplied the tools…and encouraged her experimenting with different forms…even gave her free reign to draw on walls at one point early on. She took it from there. Her pictures - even the early stick figures where always much more expressive and telling than those of her contemporaries. She didn’t notice how her talent set her apart and we didn’t focus on that. She just saw what she saw and drew what she felt. Through these primitive markings, one could “see” how she saw the world around her.
I wanted to make art feel “easy” for her. I hoped she would find joy in the “unfolding”. I got her a big easel and propped it up in the middle of the kitchen so she would be close by when she felt like creating something. Eventually that easel moved up to her playroom but oh how I loved those days when she was happy being close to me and showing me whatever she wanted me to “see” through her tender young brushstrokes.
As I watched her create that church-sponsored commission, I found myself revisiting those times when she let us see the world through her eyes…let us get a little closer to her view of the world.
As others came to observe this 20 something young lady poised and focused on that stage, I saw my little girl at one with her art. I saw her as a toddler surrounded by colorful crayons drawing her favorite stuffed animal …or looking up at her Papa, my father, whose easy connection to pen and paper inspired his little grand-daughter to draw freely and confidently. I saw quiet kindergartener who drew delightful little creatures then cut them out and pasted them up on her playroom wall. I saw an elementary schooler sculpting a lifelike squirrel complete with perky tail. A middle schooler crafting a paper-mache mask with piano keys flowing out of it’s mouth to represent her love of singing. I saw a high schooler who created a magnificent mural in her favorite English teacher’s classroom - a fantastical vision of a grandfather clock whose base grew roots and whose crown burst forth in the form of branches taking flight into a swath of butterflies. And I saw her as a freshman in college welcoming us to her InterArts Program’s exhibit of the student’s final projects where she brought a very personal journey to life through her art. She had created a triptych representing three stages of birth - images that told the story of her reconnecting with her birth mother.
That experience became even more poignant when she added a layer of interactivity to the art. She had embedded silver buttons into the canvases. And when you touched these buttons, you heard her voice speaking words selected from the letters she exchanged with her birthmother. These letters preceded their first meeting and gave these two a space to express feelings they had each held deep inside. Diana Rose took us inside those feelings and allowed us to feel the stirrings and the strain while also letting us listen in on precious pieces of this intimate conversation.
And, as if that weren’t powerful enough…I got to watch as her birthmother came face to face with this vision. This courageous woman had accepted Diana Rose’s invitation to come to this premiere art opening. This woman who had known all those years ago - when she was twenty-something - that she could not give her baby the mothering needed. This woman whose life had taken different turns. A creative soul, herself, who had not been able to follow through on her dreams of a college education but found the strength she needed to make her way to Trinity College on that special night. To a place so familiar to us all and yet unknown to her…not knowing what she would find there … just that it was important to OUR daughter.
Diana Rose brought us all together through her art. She let us listen in on some of the most intimate exchanges between her and her birthmother. The bravery of that act…the vulnerability that she poured into the creation of that art experience…touched every person who came in contact with this piece.
In these powerful moments, art revealed the inner work of an artist. Her art revealed who she was … what she was working through … how she wanted us to “see” her world. In these tender moments, this mother was allowed to see a bit deeper into my daughter’s soul.
What a gift!
As I watched her create this painterly collage of features and faces, I came to better appreciate that we see what we want to see…in each other…in ourselves.
I am so glad that her art has allowed her to “Know no boundaries.” Through her interpretation of this message, it would appear that she “sees” God as having the whole world in his/her hands.
What I think Diana Rose was trying to say with this piece, was that whatever our differences, she hopes we will see the beauty of our interconnectedness. Let our boundaries blur and our edges blend so that we can meet and know each other on a deeper level.
As someone whose beloved daughter came to her through the miracle of adoption, I feel the power of interconnectedness on a deep level. I share this daughter with another woman who I had the privilege of meeting and who trusted me to be the mother I longed to be. Though I was not alone on this journey to motherhood, I have been given the most precious gifts of all…a daughter to love…and in that daughter, an artist to light our way.
