Walking the Walk
It is time for Gallery Walk in Brattleboro. Once a month the evening streets of town take on a spark of carnival. Although, certainly a wonderful and fun social event, the well of arts that the evening encounters is also what Gallery Walk is about. An image, a voice and performance can touch a place inside. We can be charmed, delighted, uplifted, sometimes even bewildered. And there are times when we can be touched in ways that will stay with us forever. But the news can do that too.
While watching a broadcast about the hurricane, I was struck by an image that is still in front of my eyes. In someone’s now leveled backyard, a tree lay in the muddy aftermath, soaked almost to a soft pulp. Nestled in its branches’ woody grooves were strands of Mardi Gras beads. Their smoothness lay in contrast to the battered tree. The sun reflected off the drenched wood and the shiny necklaces. The browns and black of the bark showed off the bright hues of past reveling. But now there was no lightness of celebration, no dance, no breezy moves.
This was a classic study of texture and form. While there was beauty in the shapes and colors; the knowing what caused this image to be, stood behind it like a spectral of dark. My immediate reaction was purely visceral, as if I were sitting next to it. I found it so compelling that my first thought was that I wanted to paint it. Perhaps, this was the clearest way I could fathom to process all the emotions surrounding the hurricane. But the process of making art serves not only the artist; it serves the ‘audience’ as well. Art, in all its forms, can give voice to feelings and our lives in ways that the rational mind cannot. Thoughts of the upcoming Gallery Walk reinforced that image to me.
These Friday night walks are a walk through a museum; except this museum is a living, pulsing array of galleries, eateries, stores and theaters. This museum is the mountains, the stars, the trees sparkling with gems of light, the activities and people of the towns. This is where you can have a cup of coffee while a river flows on one side, and a painting stands on the other.
This next month a lot of ‘art’ is going to be happening. Between the Brattleboro 05301 Festival, already in its second week, the Literary Festival just beginning, and all the ‘regular’ happenings, I ask you one thing. Whether you go to a poetry reading at the Hooker-Dunham, dancing at Cotton Mill or a photography opening, take the time to look, really see and hear and touch and dance and feel all that this artistic expression has to offer.
As John Updike says, “What art offers is space, a certain breathing room for the spirit”. And as I say.” Take a breath and walk the walk.”