In the Beginning
When I had decided to create the paintings for my Celestial Data for Daydreaming exhibit, I knew I wanted to rework the Ancient myths about the planets into images for our time. I didn’t know that I had begun on this path 14 years ago when I came to an understanding that my daughter’s seizures were connected to the phases of the moon. I didn’t know that I was already collecting data to make these paintings. When my husband and I enrolled our daughter in a Waldorf school years after that, I didn’t know that I was walking on the path that led me to making my 7 celestial paintings.
One of the first things I learned from the Waldorf school’s parent orientation class was how they teach the children the Alphabet. First of all, they wait for the perfect time when the child’s consciousness is ready receive this gift. And when the they are ready, it is much much more than just teaching the children to memorize the Alphabet song. In the Waldorf school, it takes three days to teach one letter. On the first day, the children are taught the movement of the letter A. Rudolf Steiner, the man who created the system of education that is the Waldorf school over a hundred years ago also developed the principles of Anthroposophy, Anthroposophic Medicine, Biodynamics and Eurythmy. Eurythmy is a series of human body movements that depict how the human larynx vibrates to create the sound of each letter of the Alphabet. Of course it goes deeper that this simple statement.
Eurythmy is based on the principle that the universe exists in harmony and from this harmony we extract sound. The universe is a harmonized system of inner and outer forces that create movement. That movement creates the orbit of planets as well as the physical embodiment of the planets. That movement is a vibration which our conscious senses are not able to perceive (yet). The human larynx harmonizes with that movement of the planets, that harmony of the spheres, so that we can create the vibration that makes each sound that we can perceive with our human sense of hearing. We isolate a part of the harmony of the universe to vibrate the sound “Ah”. In the Waldorf school, they teach the children a movement with their bodies to recreate the experience of the movement of “Ah”. Standing upright, face up to the wonder of the sky, arms reach up and open wide. In this way, children experience “AH”. This is the first day.
A page from UNSTRUCK SOUND where I reimagine the movement of “Ah”.
When one does the gesture for “Ah”, the experience is qualitative. It has a distinct characteristic. One senses awe. In the same way that from creating my celestial paintings, I tried to express the distinct quality of each planet, each gesture of each letter carries with it a feeling. When one experiences the gesture of “Ah” and experiences a sense of awe, one begins to understand the true meaning of the sound “Ah”. When I understood this, I began to appreciate the human power of speech in a much deeper way. Did you ever notice how when we say the word, “awe”, we are truly saying “Ah”? This is the gesture , the feeling, the embodiment the children experience when they learn the first letter of the alphabet. It is the beginning of feeling the human power of speech and the beginning of learning our human connection to universe. And that is just the first day.
On The second day, after the children have had a good sleep, they learn the sound, “Ah”. The teacher treats the children to stories, poems and songs that celebrate the sound. “Ah”. From the movement comes the sound. And from the sound, comes the form. On the third day, the children are taught to “write” or draw the form of the letter, “A”. Yes, the children learn how to write as a way of learning how to read.
When I was creating the 7 paintings for Celestial Data for Daydreaming, I was also harmonizing with the planets and working with the feeling, the qualitative data of each myth, to arrive at a new form. So, it isn’t a big surprise to me ( although it remains a big wonder! Ah!) that after Celestial Data for Daydreaming, I have embarked on making an art book, a book of reimagined forms of our Alphabet. It is my process of arriving at a new understanding, a new appreciation, a new celebration of the movement before the sound. This is how I have come to the beginning of my path to making UNSTRUCK SOUND: Book of Imaginary Letters.