Yesterday was my 39th birthday and I got everything I wanted! I turned off my phone, took the day off from work, it rained, I felt loved and I got to spend the majority of the day wandering around the Blanton Art Museum. No party. No people. No party people. It was all very 2020. The show I saw was Expanding Abstraction - an exploration of how painting has evolved over time. The only way I could have enjoyed it more is if they had allowed me to bring my tea inside. A lot of really large wonderful pieces were in the show but the one I enjoyed the most really surprised me. I circled back around to it 3 or 4 times. I want to say it was nothing special but the scale and motion of it evoked this sense of surrender in me that I really enjoyed. I visited it a few times before I read the placard and found some synchronicity there. The title alone made me laugh, Tempesta. It is the Italian word for storm. I stood there thinking how in my life I have always seem to be drawn to the storm - being able to surrender to it is a new feeling. It also made me think of Temperance the movement, the definition of the word itself (to abstain from alcohol) and the tarot card. Which Temperance is the card that represents Sagittarius, my zodiac sign. All these little synchronicities made me feel like I was right where I was supposed to be. Funny enough the artist, Beverly Pepper, got disenchanted with this painting and took a few years to finish it. Apparently after a trip to Ankor Wat in Cambodia she felt that “it is utterly ridiculous to try to make waves with painting.” that it reaches too small an audience and may only wake a small group of people… and so she moved on to sculpture instead. I have done this. I have known that feeling before with the things I have put my energy into. Maybe not getting the response or finding the reach I had hoped for. The numbers may not matter though. It could be more about the the depth in which you effect even one person. It could change them, make them feel seen or beautifully insignificant. Or perhaps it could set them on a different course, solidify the one they are on or maybe just be the highlight of someone’s birthday. Either way, I’m glad she chose to finish Tempesta and I got to cross paths with it.
When I got home it started to drizzle snd when I opened the door I found that my friend Larissa had stopped by and left some presents on my kitchen table. Homemade pickles, incense, a gorgeous feather, flowers and a tiny chantilly cake with a single yellow candle sunk into the center. She is wonderful. In the land of cakes - Chantilly is Queen. It is exactly what I would have picked for myself. Thinking it would be a cake-less birthday I had already made myself pancakes but there are no rules that say you can not begin and end your birthday with cake…
Day 325: Brown butter and banana pancakes with more bananas, blueberries, pecans and a little maple syrup.
