mindful reflections - the power and mystery of light

Dec 17, 2015

Tired, but not out. Cold, but not bitter. I reached the Sonia Gechtoff gallery in Manhattan's Upper East Side for the opening night show titled as The Power and Mystery of Light by Julia Dubovyk.

Light forms everything we see. Its the primary source of every image. Its very common for painting tutorials to treat light as an addition to the picture, an atmosphere-maker. Painting by itself is an art of darkening, lightening, and coloring certain parts of the paper to create an illusion of looking at something real. I was naturally attracted to this exhibition as it appealed to my rationally inclined mind albeit I found more than rationality there.

When I reached the opening night event, there was Julia Dubovyk, in bright red dress beaming a smile for the photographer Salvatore Fabbri while meeting the art aficionados in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Julia has elegantly portrayed a variety of moods in her paintings of the chandeliers. Her study in shadow and light is impressive. She is clearly knowledgeable about setting up the palette. One of her paintings had a sweet polychromatic shift in Chandelier #3 (oil on wood panel). A quick peek at her Abstract work at the online gallery reminds me of Jackson Pollock aka Jack the dripper.

I sneaked closer to Julia to get a better sense of the subject.

"Why chandeliers?" I ask curiously.
She explained, "...chandeliers, as a source of light, can be turned on or off."

This is akin mindfulness, which I practice. Bingo!

This is a fascinating symbolism for mindfulness. In painting, the audience can easily get the impression that the object has a universal form, and then with proper lighting change the mood of the picture. In life, one's mind is like the chandelier. Through mindfulness, one can evolve and regulate one's mind (the symbolic chandelier) to reflect and refract the emotions worth focusing on.

Buddha says -

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.

Just remind yourself that you, as the artist of your life, can emanate and harbor positive vibes from your minds (chandelier) through practice of mindfulness. May be Andy Puddicombe may like it for his headspace app :-).

I shared my mindfulness experiences and the drastic changes it had on my life with a few guests and it stirred up an interesting discussion.

Among my favorites from the other works were Chandelier #17. It reflects a certain innocence.

I look forward to Julia expressing chandeliers in some other medium as well.