I first read The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo in the 90’s, a book gifted by a family friend who wrote an inscription in the first page, “keep following your dream”. (I know I have written about this before). When I saw those words again recently, re-reading it to my youngest child, I melancholically thought I had forgotten to follow my dream, having never had a very clear one. However, I realise that actually my continual quest is like the protagonist of said book- self enquiry. This started with my study of psychology at University because I wanted to know why… Then in my twenties, I was searching for ‘what’ and more recently…. ‘who’. The more I lean in and learn, I realise it is about accepting all that is, the why, the what, the who. It isn’t a destination. So, the book suddenly makes sense, thirty odd years later. It is an eternal quest.
Almost, inversely like the analogy of coal transforming to diamond through being under a certain about of pressure, I feel the journey within is one of releasing pressure. The letting go, the relaxation, the slowing down, the stillness; all qualities which are the opposite of what society teaches us to do. This is actually is where the gold is. The journey within, is the alchemy.
At the end of May, the sculptor was in Saudi Arabia installing a commission which had been almost a year in process, creating and making. The piece was for the company; Saudi Lime, the title of the piece was ‘Stone’ yet it looks like gold. Made from bronze it is symbolic of the company.
Almost an upturned iceberg (often used a visual for how people’s emotions or behaviours can be viewed) the ripples on the surface showing the affect that the alchemy of self development brings, and how energy ripples outwards.
I saw the Aristotle quote that, “the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”. I think so many people view art and just look at the appearance of it without delving into the deeper meaning. Art is like a physical prompt to consider, to question and to figure out the why, the what, the who. This world has become very focused on the outward appearance of things. Success seems to be defined by career, house, cars, body shape, holidays, children; a gambit of consumables. Searching for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow of acquisitions. I am hopeful that there is slowly a shift for some, into an inward development of attaining peace, contentment, contemplation. To find the golden nuggets in the success of self enquiry.
the tree pushes up
out of the earth,
the stones give a wide berth,
in the disturbance.
welcoming the dance,
for undisturbed they bear witness
to way the tree must grow
for the stones know
their eternal nature.
Saudi Lime May 2023.
THE SCULPTOR'S WIFE 