THE THREADS THAT BIND US…

Part of large symbolic mural commissioned for a public building in the States thirty years ago. When I was commissioned to paint this mural, based on the theme that all of life is interconnected, climate change and many other elements that have become part of our daily conversation were rarely discussed. 

We believed that if we put a border or line around something, it was contained.      

Artists of all disciplines understand that when we change one small part of a creation, the whole is changed and so it is true for life in general.   

Today we see how an unseen virus has dramatically changed the world we live in. A virus activated by an ever growing and unsustainable population with  disregard for the laws of nature. 

This week I received a beautiful hand made gift from my dear friend Kat Ranalli – who I met in the States in the early seventies.    The gift is a symbolic reminder that we are all connected BY THE THREADS THAT BIND US…….

When Kat and I first met in West Chester Pennsylvania…our world was very different.      I am not imagining it when I say things were simpler and calmer – (definitely not without problems) but nevertheless a healthier and happier time to be alive. 

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On the same day that I received this beautiful gift my daughter Christie Reed, who was a baby when Kat and I first met, wrote a blog entitled LIVING LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE – 5 which taps into this subject of there being no lines or borders around anything very eloquently. I am also proud that she has chosen to use one of my watercolours to demonstrate her point. (please read)

HUMANKINDBYDESIGN.LIFE

This morning’s headline notes that DAVID ATTENBOROUGH MAKES A STARK WARNING ON EXTINCTION.…

Attenborough, a man who has been actively involved in the care of our environment for sixty years. We must listen to him and the others who have been working tirelessly to educate and warn us.

It seems that we have been sleep walking as we have doggedly plodded on destroying so much in our collective paths.

Bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger planes, bigger resorts, bigger hamburgers, bigger cruise ships, big containers to ship all the crap that we have and continue to consume….and the list goes on and on….and then we are

STOPPED

STOPPED BY AN UNSEEN THREAD THAT HAS NOW CLEARLY BOUND US TOGETHER in ways that we could never have imagined.

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It is my sincere hope that we all learn from the virus. That we wake up to our vulnerabilities and at the same time wake to new and wonderful possibilities.

CHANGE is NECESSARY

We must recognise that we really are all interconnected and that we need to support and cherish the fragile threads that bind us.

I see Kat’s gift as a metaphor for a new way of thinking and being.

watercolour/gouache

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Janet:)