Sacred Vision

Les Licornes

Days are getting longer in Paris. Trees are starting to blossom and we already had our first day of heat. There is an air of celebration in the atmosphere yet there is still much to cover before letting go of routine and concentration. Sometimes I feel like I have all the time in the world to enjoy Paris and keep my life in a thoughtful pace. Other times, I get caught up in the rush and start going at myself for not having done all that I could have done. It is indeed a hard job to flow with life in a balanced way. I have had problems letting go of my routine and having to adjust to different situations. It is almost as if I forget sometimes that I am human and that I also need to rest and flow with life.

In my time here in Paris this semester, I have been consciously working on being more lenient with myself and just letting some things be.

            In one of these adventures that I have been encouraging myself to live, I decided to take a trip to an area of Paris that I barely know. I took the train to Trinite and got off at the church of Trinite. This is the ninth arrondisement in Paris and it used to be the place where impressionist painters lived and shared their work. It is located south of Montmartre also near the opera Garnier on the opposite side. What is most fascinating about the neighborhood is the Gustave Moreau museum located in a small street going up the hill towards Montmartre.

            The museum used to be Gustave Moreau’s residence and studio. As you walk up the first stairs, you walk into a dark apartment with a cluttered studio and a small bedroom overlooking an internal courtyard. Everything is as the artist left it before he died. It is very interesting to see the artist’s personal collection of artifacts since it tells so much about his world and inspiration. He was very attached to nature and one of his major influences was Indian art. In his drawings, patterns, and colors there is a clear influence of eastern art. He was also very interested in mythology and reinterpreted scenes of mythology in his work. In his personal collection of objects there are many pieces of pottery and small objects that somehow put together, assemble the chessboard in Moreau’s imagination.

            As you walk in to the second and third floor, you can see the gallery and a collection of preliminary drawings. In a historical context, he is contemporary with the impressionists but was always someone who could only belong to his own category. He gives the paintings somewhat of a classical treatment of the human body but he also creates his own methods of representation. He was also a professor in the School of Fine Arts and was a mentor to painters like Matisse.

            Something that caught my attention was his drawing skill that he applies to his latter works in creating several dimensions in the paintings. The image looks clear form afar, but as you get closer, there are other images that appear in drawing. So every painting has several dimensions and ways of looking at it. His use of color is very extensive and as an art critic remarks, we can get he impression that he could have been a jeweler before being a painter. His colors and his treatment could be compared to the assemblage of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes, pearls, and nacre (The Times, May 15, 1881). Every painting is collection of dreams and weaving. I could have stayed in that museum for hours since every painting appears and keeps revealing itself the more you look at it.

            One of the paintings that I was most attracted to was Les Licornes

where you can see his use of color, his drawing and the magic that his work demonstrates. The queens and the unicorns are very powerful in their representation since they inspire so much light and clarity.

            Somehow this artist evokes and completes many of the areas that I have been interested in during my time in Gallatin and in my life in general. His work is the assemblage of his life, his love for sacred art, and his talent to express color. Every painting gives the sense that there is much knowledge and work behind. I have always dreamed of making jewelry that reflects a process of intellectual and artistic engagement. Every painting shows an influence of all of his studies and culminates in what I consider the highest expression of creativity. When knowledge, experience, and divine inspiration combine to form art, I consider it to be the highest form of creative expression.