FEBRUARY
“But how could you live and have no story to tell?”
―
Scroll for this month's art episode.
Hello, February.
As always: if you haven't closed your other tabs, stilled yourself a bit, put your phone away, and gotten your drink yet, please pause this for a moment and do this! Art can't do what it seeks to do for you without your full attention and investment of self. It's worth taking a moment to be ready for a simple, uninterrupted half hour of beauty, art, and thoughtful engagement.
The word loosely encompassing this month's material is the word "Triumph." I'm someone who has come to profoundly understand and respect the human capacity for agency--or our personal decisions--and the conquering of circumstance. In a time when victimhood is so very "en vogue," something in me wants to move us all upstream together towards triumph.
This month also features the work of several talented friends and acquaintances, including a very dear uncle of mine who passed away in 2016--but not without leaving a great legacy of abstract paintings, which you will see here.
The first song is one I co-wrote with a producer friend of mine when I was working with a record label in 2014. Only a handful of people have heard it in those years before you.
I hope you enjoy "Young Skin" and the rest of this month's episode.
Continue to scroll for "Young Skin."
YOUNG SKIN
Young skin, don't let the smog in--
Stay porcelain and brave.
You win when you keep your heart intact;
Young skin, don't fade.
Young lips, don't let the lies grip:
Only speak out light.
Your whispers kill the darkest shadows:
Young skin, stay alive.
Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive,
Young skin
Young skin, I've been wondering:
Are you sad at what you see?
You will shine into the wreckage;
Young skin--stay free.
Save your life, save your life, save your life,
Young skin
This is a song about youth,
about concern for the world
and its troubled hearts,
about fighting forward.
It is a question, a challenge, a probing, a blessing.
It is a declaration that as long as there is a thread of innocence hanging on, there is hope.
It is a message to ourselves, both in the present and in the echoes of memory, and to those yet to come.
One Life for Choice & Triumph
Click the play button above for audio accompaniment of this article.
In a time where victimhood has become something of a badge of honour, it’s helpful to articulate the nobility and capability of the human spirit in triumphing over all kinds of circumstance. Rather than being a sentence to utter destruction, suffering and challenge can be an invitation toward heroism. No one is denied this opportunity.
Life isn’t fair. Horrible things happen to people; horrific things are done by humans to other humans. Many have suffered unspeakable things. Many have been born with great disadvantage; many have suffered what seems terrible fate through no fault of their own. Many have made mistakes but bear consequences that seem utterly disproportionate.
We want to rail against it all, and when we have a chance of rectifying things through our impassioned responses, our diligence, our kindness, our courage, we ought to try.
But often injustice or tragedy simply remains, and there is little that can be done. Often those who have caused injury will not or simply cannot understand what they have done. Nature rarely bends. Time refuses to let us revisit negatively decisive moments.
So what do we do?
Our focus needs to radically change if we want joy. We only have one life, and it’s the life we have, regardless of how we see where we are.
The question has to become: what can we do, from this moment on, to ensure our lives are as wonderful as we can possibly make them?
It often takes serious doing and emotional, physical, and spiritual fortitude to overcome many of the things we face, and I would never want to deny that.
But more than that, I would also never want to rob someone of their sense of agency and the incredible power of the human will in overcoming odds and finding what good is available. We can spend our lives wishing we had a different life, or we can accept what we have and make it as beautiful as possible. We can confirm ourselves in misery, or we can do our best to choose and find purpose, meaning, and the potential of joy.
Human agency is not the whole story—we are complex beings—and it’s certainly not simple in practice. It’s hard to overcome challenges—hence, the heroism. Gratitude for what we have and a letting go of comparison goes a long way; faith in a loving God is a source of real power for many; trusted friendships, seeking psychological and physical healing, and stumbling into new, unexpected, beautiful realities can do much.
But nothing is guaranteed. Maybe injustices against us will continue. What matters most, however, is that in the midst of past or present suffering, no one is ever denied the chance to triumph through continuing to fight against impossible odds. Our interior remains always our own, and we always have the chance to reclaim it, no matter how many times we have missed that opportunity. There are "new mercies every morning."
Allow me now to introduce you to a great testimony to the bold triumph of the human spirit: a great Canadian painter, and my late uncle, Terrence Keller.
(The audio will continue into the next section while you scroll to view his paintings.)
TERRENCE KELLER
My Uncle Terry: The Painter
The Painter
Only after his passing in 2016 did I come to realize how special it was to visit my Aunt Patricia & Uncle Terry once or twice a year--and not just because they were kind and good, sophisticated, cultured, and welcomed us with open arms. Their home itself was--is--an art gallery, mostly of Uncle Terry's wall-sized paintings, but also the beautiful creations of friends of theirs, alongside the curated furniture, elegant dining, and generous natural light. I grew up intuitively grasping the capacity for great beauty in the best of abstract expression.
Beautiful, skilled abstract painting has an incredible capacity to communicate the things we sense beyond words. Coming from a place of wisdom, intuition, and an obsession with the medium of colour, Terrence filled his canvases with love, order, mystery, and the glint of true, beautiful humanity. It reminds me of the mystics and their grasping toward God in the language of poetry. I am so proud to have had such proximity to his legacy.
The Conqueror
I never spoke with him about it, but as a child I know he suffered greatly from polio, and was left with lifelong pain and physical weakness. But he was never one to sulk or be self-pitying--never. He was kind, steady, generous, incisively intelligent, and utterly himself.
It is difficult for most of us to grasp the physical demands of painting, and this is emphatically the case with canvases the size of his works. I only knew of his suffering because of some physical cues and the stories of my mother. All I saw growing up was an incredible man living an incredible life (if unconventional; I remember he was the only man I knew as a kid who wore a ponytail).
He navigated suffering with courage and perseverance.
The Excellent
Within his lifetime, he became known as one of the foremost Formalist and abstract painters in Canada, regularly displaying his paintings in reputed art galleries, including his own solo exhibitions, and featuring in printed works. He is recognized as one of the finest Canadian painters of his generation.
These images come nowhere close to communicating their depth, beauty, and presence as they do in person. The delicate layers of colour seem to move like fine fabric, and the desire to peer in, in, in is strong. It seems a doorway to another world.
The skill needed to create such an effect is profound, while simultaneously retaining order and balance between colours and strokes, paired with a sense of freedom of expression. It is strong discipline and intelligence meeting deep creative freedom.
The Strong
He passed away young, and suffered much, but all I remember in his wake was strength. He was persistent, direct, determined, focused, but always with a firm, unwavering kindness and humility informing all. He was sincere and unique and pure artist, and I can tell you truly that he and his confrères would likely find it comic that his work is displaying in a website with a primarily conservative audience in mind!
Especially in recent years, we have largely lost sight of the quiet, strong ones--often the artists, the thinkers, the poets in both life and work. His life is a reminder of the legacy that can be left through constancy and commitment to human nobility and triumph.
The Quiet Giant
It is in this recognition of his life as a quiet giant of a man that I share him and his work with you today. This is a picture of him with my Aunt Patricia on their wedding day. To this day--an artist herself--she remains his biggest fan and advocate, successfully managing the estate of his many works. They lived a beautiful life together where art informed every aspect, and he continues to live on in his paintings, in our memory, and especially in hers.
(More information available about where to view and purchase his work at the end of this episode.)
I wrote the following song as a commission project for a couple who had suffered profoundly with infertility and multiple miscarriages over years, but had just received their son. It is a song of quiet, intimate celebration of his presence, and another story of triumph after many years of suffering.
Welcome, Baby
Welcome, baby
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
Sleep in safety
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
We've been waiting all this time
For you to come and change our lives
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
You'll build castles
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
Fight your battles
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
But just dream for now, love
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
You are precious
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
We've been waiting all this time
For you to come and change our lives
Loo-li-loo-li-lullaby
To end this month's episode, a short poem of mine: rain gives way to beauty, and is a natural analogy for the battering of life. There is often greater beauty not in spite of but because of the rain that must come.
The Grey of Day
The grey of day pours out on all the earth;
The saltless tears of sky begin to break
The spirits and the smiles of all who wake
In mornings glued to dreams of better birth.
The sky applies the pressure of its girth
Allows the cleansing sadness (like a lake
Upon the broken bottles madmen make)
To bury all the false and hollow mirth.
But oh! the green revives from water wept!
And yellow light now shows itself for gold,
While prism aura sheds its diamond rays.
And all the darkest shadow that has crept
Its way into the open—brazen bold!—
Is tidal wave succumbed in world ablaze.
We have loved having you here today.
You can download February's PDF for all main written content and lyrics, as well as audio files for the featured songs and poems by clicking the button below.
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BONUS MATERIAL:
Not ready for your art experience to end just yet?
Some other extra content worth your time can be found below.
If you are interested in learning more about Terrence Keller's paintings for viewing or purchase, please contact us at [email protected] or visit:
Learn More
The Art of Funding Art: Stephen Chow
One of the most fascinating bite-size documentaries celebrating the wonder of the artist: a patron living to fund living artists. Stephen is doing some of the most important work for artists by funding their work and setting them free to do what they do best: create.
Presented by the Stephen Chow Art Fund & Empathyfilms Productions.
Live Recording of "Sometimes"
A song written when I was 19. It remains a favourite of listeners, and in 2017 we recorded a live version when I was home in Saskatchewan. A simple song about the beauty of and need for human intimacy.
You can also learn more about this song and its story, including the video created in Tehran by a Russian cinematographer, in the second installment of Through the Kaleidoscope.
Special thanks to all who contributed creatively to this month's art episode, and to all who support great artists around the world, ensuring a legacy of humanity and beauty for future generations. All photos used with permission under Creative Commons license, with special credit to Elizabeth Roth for many of the featured images. Video footage for "Young Skin" is by Kay Clarity; demo song co-written and produced by Fabio Angelini. Video footage for "The Grey of Day" by Elizabeth Mirzaei. Paintings by Terrence Keller, with special thanks to Patricia Keller and Terrence Keller Studios for generously supplying photos of his work from his 2019 posthumous exhibition.
This Art Episode series has been copyrighted, inclusive of all individual elements within the episodes, as well as the concept. It can be shared personally and directly with anyone of interest, but can't be replicated without permission. For inquiries for broader use, please write me and my team at [email protected].
Copyright Kay Clarity/Snow Rose Productions/Calibre Records, 2021. All rights reserved.
