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The energetics of March are a mash-up. Quiet honestly, I am not certain what to even write on. So I took to reading and found a fabulous book, technically for children but I think it is timely for all.
Have you heard of her? She has quite a story. I went to see her work at the Guggenheim in 2019. It was remarkable. Not only because my little zipper of a son (not yet two) got to be in a NY cab for the first time, and meet some beloved friends from near and far at the museum (bless them for holding him and helping me savor a few moments of this grad spiral of art) but because she said to not share her work until twenty years after her death because the world was not ready for it.
It is said that at the turn of the 20th century, there was absolutely nothing like it.It being her work of abstraction to make the “unseen seen.” She tried to share her work and was turned away by her peers, including Rudolph Steiner (yes the same person I quote all the time); he said he could not interpret her art. I’ll leave that there. If you want to see her work, a learn a bit, watch here.
What was interesting in the exhibit is that her botanical art was impeccable and then it opened to this abstraction (as she became interested what they called spiritualism). The paintings are huge. They have a dramatic presence. She thought her work should be shown in a spiral-based building as she worked with that fractional relationship in presence in her paintings. Have you seen the Guggenheim? It’s a spiral. Hilma AF Klint died in 1944. Her work was shown in 2018 in a spiral building in New York City.
(I purposefully kept the screen shots from https://www.guggenheim.org to show you their description of the stairwell)
So when I was on my regular library run with my son and saw this book propped up, I grabbed it really for me more than him:
I had recently been writing about the mirror neurons and how reading books to children fires their neurology…meaning whatever content they are hearing about their brain lights up in corollary reference. Reading about bravery; they think on that. Reading about a kid going to pre-school; they think on that. Reading about Molly the wombat; they think on that. Whatever we place in our children’s minds grows. The authors of this book, Ylva Hillstrom and Karin Eklund, took the opportunity to make a gorgeous invitation to you, about Hilma, but also about themselves. Take a peek:
One of the first lines says, “She thought she could hear things that other people could not hear.” I know they are speaking to her spiritualism, but it also a way to teach children to listen to the little voice within and not be swayed by the external. I recently saw Brene Brown mention that the opposite of belonging is “fitting in” because you have to (my words here) shave off pieces of yourself, or access where you want to be accepted and model yourself accordingly vs being yourself, belonging to yourself and building your community from there. Having a sense of belonging prevents us from losing ourselves.
The book talks about Hilda’s dedication and then also her rejection by her own community. No one understood her. The Guggenheim called her work “Paintings from the Future.” It seems that she may have been of the type to plant seeds of tree, in which shade she will never sit.
If her art is intriguing to you — please go check it out. I am fascinated by it, but also by her life story, to keep creating no matter what the external says. To have an alignment with self so strong to not be swayed, even with life’s end. And to be okay with knowing the value in her efforts even if they are not to fruit in her time, yet it is her work to do it anyway. Talk about a long game.
And why are these the times that were ready for her work? I’ll leave you with some questions to contemplate:
What work are you being called to do that may be misunderstood?
What are you creating that is needed by those that will come after you?
Are you feeling more in the Belonging or the Fitting in these days?
To having the courage to create on faith,
Kate
Thanks for this!!