Come in out of the cold & warm your soul inside the silence of an artwork!

When the October sky turns gray and spooky and there’s a definite chill in the air, when the tang of smoldering firewood laces the wind, we tend to gravitate towards cozy indoor spaces with our hands full of warm mugs.  It’s also an invitation to delve into our ‘inner worlds’.  Galleries and spaces reserved for the display of works of art are wonderful places to warm yourself — inside and out — while giving the mind a much needed break from its whirring repetition of thought.  Windham Fine Arts gallery is like a warm little hearth on the mountaintop.  You enter, and at once the calm washes over you.  Maybe it’s the warmth of the hues on the walls, or the tremendous care evidenced by the artists who labored over every stroke of the brush, or the beauty of the space itself  — an 1855 Federal-style house that has stood the test of time, enduring nature’s trials while retaining its inimitable character.  Or maybe it’s the intention of giving space to simple experience itself, which is what a gallery ought to encourage in the viewer.  Silence, introspection, and a connection with the world of the non-verbal.

So much of our non-verbal experience is dominated by advertising in this hyper-commercialized world, where visual cues are often synonymous with dissatisfaction and a sense of troubling inferiority.  Here, in the warm calm of the gallery, the nobility of visual experience is once again given its just dues.  Powerful images point us back to our deepest wisdom, but they do so quietly, without imposition.  They are like interesting people you’d like to invite into your home and get to know better.  They beckon you closer, drawing you in.  They have presence.

This autumn, as the days grow spooky and chilled outside, the presence of these artworks are more keenly felt.  Come in and spend some time inside the frames.  Find out which ones you’d like to get to know better.  Find out which ones whisper privately to you.  They’re actually saying quite a lot without saying anything at all!  They ask us to put aside all mental constructs and navigate away from our sturdy sense of selves for a moment. They invite us to explore our often-neglected inner spaces, worlds inhabited by color, symbolism, symmetry and juxtaposition.  Whether landscapes, still lifes or figurative studies, the glowing spaces inside the frames bespeak the subtle but powerful truth: we don’t always have to be in the process of becoming something, seeking something, or asserting something…  Sometimes it’s okay just ‘to be’.

Instead of attacking our dignity, visual cues can prop up our sense of greatness, can inspire and refresh us, can challenge us to dream and reinvent ourselves.  Paintings speak volumes!  Don’t believe me?  Come on into WFA gallery this fall and see what happens when you gaze inside a frame.

Above painting by Thomas Paquette, “Approaching Dusk”, 21″ x 16″, oil on linen.  Now on view at WFA.