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A Year With Rilke, December 26th

Writer's picture: sharonkingstonsharonkingston

The Double Realm, December 26, 2011, 36 x 36 in, oil on canvas

A Year with Rilke, Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke, translated and edited by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows is a dog eared post it noted “bible” that I go to often for inspiration.  Although the book is composed as a daily reader, rarely does the poem of the day have anything to do with what I am painting or contemplating.  However, as the year ends and the frequency of the statement, “I’m ready for this year to be over” resounds from others, I’ve been reflecting on how it really was the best of times and the worst of times for me and my family this year.  The winds of change blew our way and we had to make really tough choices and big changes.  But in that struggle there was so much goodness, so many gifts and blessings and such a change of perspective that these words by Rilke–today’s entry–resonate strongly with my situation.  The polarity of life–how there is no understanding of its riches without a walk through austerity–is a message that is expressed across many platforms and belief systems.  Here is Rilke’s take on it, from the Sonnets to Orpheus I, 9.

Only he who lifts his lyre in the Underworld as well many come back to praising, endlessly.

Only he who has eaten the food of the dead will make music so clear that even the softest tone is heard.

Though the reflection in the pool often ripples away, take the image within you.

Only in the double realm do our voices carry all they can say.

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      Sharon Kingston is a Bellingham WA (Washington) based artist.  As an oil painter she uses the properties of her medium to create paintings that respond to both the atmosphere of her surroundings and poetry. This method of looking inward and outward and, in the moments of painting, finding her way on the canvas is her approach to creating paintings infused with poetry and the memory of landscape. The atmospheric element of her work is a testament to her desire to create spaces that are undefined, contemplative and allow room to reflect and accept uncertainty. Poetry, by nature open ended, is used both in the conceptualization of the work and as a part of the studio practice. The words of Rainer Rilke have informed Sharon’s work for many years, but she also turns to contemporary poetry when it resonates with her life. She uses layers of transparent color, reveals forms by concealing and unearthing pentimenti and suggests elements of landscape in her process.

      People describe her paintings as ethereal, atmospheric, contemplative, PNW inspired, and filled with light and mood.  She has a storefront art studio in downtown Bellingham and welcomes you view her paintings in person.

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