no limits
The drawwing challenge of this week "no limits" brought me back to a post from November 2011.
The image is a grid of nine collages with the title "river and dam" and the black lines represent
figures but they can also be seen as bridges.
The river is a natural border or limit that can be crossed and a methaphor for "panta rei",
literally meaning that everything flows and is constantly changing.
When I was working on the series the song of Gary Bartz - I've known Rivers was on my mind.
The song is based on a poem by the poet Langston Hughes.
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
More about Langston Hughes you'll find here and an analysis of the poem here
Please have a look on Roberto´s blog oat to see more works on the theme no limits.
Thank you Roberto for hosting this drawing challenge.
To see the original "river" posts just go here and here
14 comments:
A wonderful theme to create with. And I always love to see these art mosaics. They highlight your work so well!
such a wonderful song!
to know rivers.... that will touch a soul and most likely inspire it.
your art is a joy to see. i love the colors.
I would love to see this art in person. I can look at it for a very long time. At the bottom right corner I see a segment of the Golden Gate Bridge and in other areas of the whole work I see snippets of train tracks. roadways (asphalt) and bits and pieces of old broken down docks where boats used to rest. The colors here thrill me. The blues and the ochre (my all time favourite colour) and black and cream. Oh gosh your work is crazy fabby. N, xo
p.s the poem speaks to me of something I'm reading right now. Here is a snippet: "Their overall energy pattern is reflected in their individual cells, just as our individual souls hum actively within a kind of global soul comprising all life on the planet." And of course it's about reincarnation and how we are all linked. Namaste friend.
Very nice to work with rivers is a "limit" theme... there is no limit in rivers! I love the blue/green colors, they make me want to see the sea and go for a swim!
i find rivers and water powerful, i've dedicated a blog to it myself too {although i love playing with the fact i may not draw the river at all!}. ;)))
the 9-some does look good, like a sort of map which would lead us absolutely... anywhere. i like that freedom.
and i love the blue of the river, of course
n♥
Yes, it's an interesting way to see the river as a natural límit, which we can, or we must to cross. Perhaps the anxiety, and the human desire for trespassing limits and go beyond, led man to create bridges (and boats)
Your human-bridges, could be interpreted as the idea that, for humans beings there are no limits that nature can bring,but,yes, limits the mind can bring.
Anyway, I like to think that the river is "no limits" but not as a barrier that must be crossed, otherwise, as the river itself, the flow of water is limitless, ranging from mountain to sea, again and again, endlessly, eternally. (and it's never the same river, as you surely know)
Thanks for participating, good week!
Well, I have to admit the others already said a lot of what I had in mind when I read your post. Especially Roberto did. Now I'm listening to the song and look at your drawings and just feel the music floating. Yes, floating like a river, like the words of the poem, like life running through our veins...somehow calming to realise the eternal river of existance...the limits that are none...thanks for your great philosophical contribution!
hmmm, jazz and a sax, love it!
Roberto have said it all i think
and better than i ever could
i love the way the words, the music and your work come together
and i have the feeling that after hearing this song i understand your work better!
dag!
Patrice A.
well what can I say, if all other especially roberto did it so well I couldn't do myself. I might add that river or water in general has a imense power to create and destroy and find its way through even the hardest rocks, so the rivers possibliities are endless, without limtis.
barbara bee
What a great inspration, the river and his natural limits. The song is beautiful. I like the way you put the colors in your work and the extra black and white. The lines/diagonals makes this composition exciting. Did it work with my mailadres?
Oh Eric- such wonderful imagery! yours and of course Langston Huges, how can you go wrong there!
Metaphors for life- the river and veins and bridges- eternal has come up and I see in others comments as well...the movement of life is limitless :)
hoi!
deze keer ben ik de host
doe je mee?
dag!
Patrice A.
thank you for your wonderful metaphors and Langston Hughes words... great post
Leuk om je te ontmoeten via Roberto. Alles is dus al gezegd hier boven. All I can contribute is that using rivers as your way of expressing no limits is really orginal. Nice meeting you! Manon :)
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