002 ~ Abstract Music

Today's photo comes from my room.  It's a piece of artwork from my (very talented even if I do say so myself) daughter's many pieces left behind when she left home for college four years ago.

I intend to retake this photo someday as all the ones taken so far seem to miss a part of it on one side or another. :(


But I love this piece!


It was something she did during her senior year in high school ~ that was a very busy year for her ~ but it never was completely finished.  I don't remember why.  When you look closely you can tell what's not yet done but you're left wondering just how would it be done?  Which color would it be given?  Would some texture be added into it?  Or maybe it would be given a different perspective?


While those answers would be nice I like to look at what is there already.  The huge treble clef encompasses most of the piece in size but is tipped over far to the right as tho the top has fallen well below middle C.  The staff winding thru it: is it going up or coming down?  The flat (unseen is this photo) sits up in the far right corner in a black hole.  Flags from a hidden note peer thru the right side, waving toward the head of some unseen stringed instrument, perhaps a violin. In the bottom left corner (missing from this photo) are a quarter-rounded octave of piano keys with a twisting unpainted path leading from them up to the small flat in the black hole.


There are many ways to interpret this piece.  In my simplest form I'd see the many roads one takes in life, similar directions but clearly different paths to get there. Each full of various things to slow us down, or make us race ahead; things to stop us for a spell (to recover or to just smell the roses), or things to overcome in some way if we wish to move ahead.  Music is part of everyone's life in one way or another.  For some it is their life ~ everything is or become musical.  For others it's just a small piece, something to stop and pay attention to now and then.


I look at this abstract piece every night before going to sleep.  It's helps me to focus on the happier things going on in my life.  It makes me think of the artist, and then of each of her siblings. The ever expanding circle of people in my life (past & present) all come to mind in my prayers.  Amazing that so much can be found in this 20x30 unfinished painting!  Like this particular piece of art, life is never really complete, there is always more to come.