Joining

This painting is difficult to find words for…i will try. ( I notice the re appearance of tears, and of the orb….and idealistic intentions. Much has changed in my own perceptions about it all…since creating these paintings .) ( click image to enlarge )

The setting seems a rather ethereal  dimension… a  play of lights forming the “vision” of the figures… clouds, veils…energy in movement…morphing,  transforming.

This image is about attempting intimate joining with another. There is an overlap as these figures appear to share the same physical form in parts as they blend into each other.  Faces, breasts, shoulders, legs and arms are interchangeable, becoming each other. From a strong shared shoulder, her arm is also his arm…and so they hold a crystal ball, within which there is an image of a shared dream…an intention at union and true love.  Two hands, index fingers touching, and a magical light shines in their connecting. Above on the left, the two hands are reaching towards each other as an effort at this connecting, but not yet achieving it. The faces become each other…as they are indeed mirrors. Projected images inter mix with perceptions of true seeing….which can cause them to get lost as to whose image is who’s. On the right, there is an image of pain, fear and separation… tears fall down the arm,  transforming…as the drops become more globes, this time containing a winged image of freedom from the illusion and the lies created by erroneous perceptions and resulting delusions.

All of this represents to me the range of energies shared by two beings in their attempt at true union…and all that unexpectedly comes up to the surface in that process…some which is devastating, as it must be. A powerful potential is present. They may well go separate ways when the potential of their journey together is completed…or continue together, as indicated. There is also the possibility that they will become lost in unending projections, and split up, each blaming the other….only to move onto another mirror, and repeat.

If they are  deeply committed to living for Truth, there is a chance that they can achieve something Real…True. Likely that will not look anything like what the previously sleeping dreamers projected in the beginning …which must, its self, experience a fundamental dis-integration.

The Work.

We are not the experiences we have, or any of the roles we have identified with, even the ones we feel most define us.  We are the pure conscious space within which any experience takes place…that which does not change.

We are That.

 

 

About janbetts

I am an artist who has been living in Costa Rica for over 30 years. My lifestyle is relatively reclusive, and so now i am creating a blog to exchange ideas. I am new at this, but soon i hope to master this blog thing so that i can include photos and to write about new paintings i am working on, or have recently finished....or that are in my website.
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4 Responses to Joining

  1. Chrome says:

    A deep one, Jan, and obviously heartfelt. It is fascinating the way you paint “through” people and things, as if in an attempt to see into them, and though you present them in an almost idealized form, nothing is hidden, all is revealed. And that is what life is, when seen in its fullest form: duality in everything, imperfections all around. The real beauty is in the slow journey to transparency, and by then, I guess, we will all be spirits. Actually not a bad future, in spite of the bumps and bruises along the way.

    • jan says:

      I loved your comment Chrome…thank you so much for your wise words. ¨…the real beauty is in the slow journey to transparancy…¨ i love what that says….so true. Transparancy can only happen as we finally let go of all the games and hidden agendas, lies, and tricks played by ego to complicate and confound us beyond the ablity to find truth in anything! There is so much more. So much.
      Then as you said, by the time we achieve transprency, we may all be spirits!! How cool is that! All the false stuff simply cannot make that shift.
      Here´s to transparency! Thank you, Chromium. You have such a fine mind!

  2. Karima says:

    Amazing! Once again I repeat, I am so glad you started this blog:) It brings your paintings into another dimension all together, and I feel the lucky recipient of the inner knowledge and “secrets” that you are sharing with us. I have seen this painting for years, yet I never took the time to analyze the small but very important details, and I think I missed the over-all feeling of the wanting to join, as I saw it as just a failure to do it (the head turned away..the tears.) After reading your dissection and also your feelings on “human joining” in general, I see it in a much more positive light.. The tears are still there yes, but maybe now not as a mourning for what could not work, but as a vehicle for freeing them both(as they Are physically joined) and let’s face it, breaking the illusions can be very painful..yet on the other side of that breaking, there can be hope..that they can “get it right”
    I see this painting in more positively and with more faith in a future joined, then I first saw it. It took your explanation to feel a bit more hopeful for this pair of flawed but very real lovers. It seems we all have fit into that category one time or another…

  3. jan betts says:

    Yes…it is interesting, Karima. I am also viewing these paintings with different, clearer eyes. Until i began this blog, i really didn’t see the need to find words to explain the meaning of my paintings. Even tho’ I knew what all the symbols meant as i painted Joining…. i was not in a place to articulate their meaning the way that i can now.
    Life sometimes takes us through profound experiences that actually do transform us, especially if we intend that to be the case. ( which i do ) I have had a few of those over the years during which i painted these paintings…and so my view has expanded.
    Just as in any relationship that is deeply intuitive, or in some way emotionally involved…each person certainly can affect the other, in the morphing mirrors. They both can get lost in it, too…stuck in repeating cycles. Also sometimes they can choose to gain huge benefits…in using the mirrors to understand the twists and turns of the “human condition”…to gain inner liberation…to find Truth, which in fact was never lost.
    Always so much to be learned…..but more important still, in my opinion, to learn how to UN-LEARN…to reveal the beliefs and hidden lies, the toxic patterns of the delusional ego networks that keep us stuck.
    Thank you once again, Karima, for all your support and your deep well of creative inspiration!

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