493 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair NJ
Curated By Mary Z, see 73 See Gallery for more information
These works were inspired by a poem by Rilke which captures sentiments that resonate today. Painted while in quarantine, they reflect the longing we all share for a world we knew before lockdown and the hope that the future will return the life we knew. The stories we write and the pictures we paint describe who we are in here and now. If we do it right the messages travel across generations. I want my imagination to have a memory.
All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong
and varied as the land.
And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.
No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.
– Rainer Maria Rilke, from ‘The Book of Hours’
