11 Jun Houseness
“Cloud Cities: Euria, 2025, acrylic and oil on canvas, 40×60”.
(Euria translates as “The Rain” in basque). My paintings are pouring out of me like rain lately. I showed this painting to a friend and he said it reminded him of how the rain comes and washes everything down, cleaning everything and giving it new life. The leaves on the trees, through the street gutters, into creeks that become rivers and then find their way to the big blue ocean where it collects into one body of water. Waiting…. to condense into a cloud and do it all over again as a little raindrop. Our rainy days, the dark times, the times of confusion and doubt are inevitably washed away and we feel fresh and alive in the face of the big life storms. It’s a cycle, afterall.
Here is a poem by one of my favorite writers:
“When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.”
– “Sweet Darkness” by David Whyte, House of Belonging