Believe in the Music: Birth
What better instrument than the flute to express the airy and innocent “birth” of the soul into this world. Unencumbered by the weight of clothes or color, the wide-eyed baby, barely covered in a white sheet, is open to new life. With tail coyly lifted and beak up, the baby bird equally portrays a sweet vulnerability. The surrounding bushes and trees are in full flower of spring. Fresh clear blue water gently cascades down toward our new souls like the waters of Baptism. This is a scene – pure, hopeful, unadulterated. Even the Renaissance man is reborn. Though he is laden with clothes and color, pouches and pockets, his costume has almost a clown childlike feel. Bathed in the simplicity of direct light, his diverted eye discloses a quiet desire for that simple age of innocence, when it was easy to “believe in the music.”
(“Birth” is the first of a trilogy of paintings collectively entitled “Believe in the Music,” exploring the interrelationship between music and the journey of the soul between this life and the next. The ethereal nature of music easily expresses the evolving needs of the spirit. The other two paintings in this series are “Death” and “Eternal Life” All three paintings use characters from the Renaissance period, a time of rebirth no less, but also a time when the quest for spirituality still at its peak is suddenly juxtaposed against a rising tide of interest in the rewards of this world. The rich and colorful costuming of the day poignantly heightens that contrast between spirit and material.)
