Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives. Richard Bach
In art, either as creators or participators, we are helped to remember some of the glorious things we have forgotten, and some of the terrible things we were asked to endure.
Ancient people were purposeful in their remembering. Shrines and signposts were created to bring attention to a time, a people, a happening, a revelation that brought meaning to their history and lives.
Remembering is harkening backwards, an attempt to in part, stop the forgetting. Art making is not merely a nostalgic gaze at the past but a creative reply to the impulse of memory. When people pass, objects they held dear begin to deteriorate. Experiences begin to dim in the light of memory. How might one hold dear the heart’s retrospection needed to honor the legacy’s reverence?
Remembering can point back to what really matters to us. Remembering can take on a holy and sacred sense as we long to re-capture the essence and presence of those now departed. When remembering makes these memories and objects more beautiful, its entering into our attention goes beyond the making of souvenirs.
We collect souvenirs. We commemorate meaning. When artists focus on the past, those with skill and grace offer up more than merely a record of the person, place, or object. The commemorative rendering creates a new existing presence, one that evokes a present sense of the memory making it alive once again.
Life is ephemeral and transient. Art making and the beauty of remembering goes beyond preservation to delight and a renewed observation of what made the experience, person, or object so vibrant initially.
Our current experience with media and its endless supply of simulation may prove deleterious to our sense of remembering and its evocative qualities. Preoccupied with an endless onslaught of images and information, we may cease to pause and in a sense re-capture the transient and fleeting nature of consciousness. We may avoid the contemplative honoring the beautiful memory can evoke and induce. In a time of provoking complexity, the beauty of active commemoration can serve as a re-focused lens of what is worthy of our attention and concentration. Art making can prove to be an existential container for those things and experiences that are indeed powerfully formative and true.
Spend some time today remembering the beautiful things that have graced your life: the dear friendships, the expanse of the created realm embraced on camping trips, the handmade gifts and birthday cards given so exquisitely through children and our more seasoned relatives (cards from Grandpa or Uncles…..remember??). Take out the old archival collections today and spend some sacred memory. You will discover the beauty of remembering.
0 Comments