Going 80 in a School Zone

If you take the number 80 and divide it into two unequal parts, you have an eight and a zero. Lying on its side (in the never-ending mode of sleep known as death) 8 resembles the sign for infinity ∞. Technically a lemniscate, introduced to mathematics by English mathematician John Wallis in 1655 to represent endless quantities, And then we are left with 0 (Zero) at the opposite end of the galaxy of infinite time. I’m not quite there yet, but closer than I imagined I might ever approach and therefore given to the rumination of time, mortality and other illusions of reality.

And so this morning, I tried to absorb the writing of Scottish artist Samatha Clark, a painter of luminous literary skill who reminded me to take stock in my vision of the world.

Sinking Light” 2024, acrylic and brass leaf on cradled board, in a light oak frame, 28.5 cm x 33.5 cm (10 in x 12 in) - Samantha Clark

She made me aware of “ … how our seeing is not neutral but active, our visual intelligence at work in and with the world, filtering some details out, conjuring others, always working to make some sense out of the light our eyes are gathering moment by moment.” Neuroscientists will tell you, our eyes don’t really “see” the world. They only receive light signals and transmit them to our poor brains who are left with the task of interpreting what’s out there and instantly making a real-time movie which we experience as life/reality/The World.

“All of us are made of borrowed water. Our bodies are two thirds water. But this water is not ours to keep. It is borrowed from the rain, the snow, the rivers, and the clouds. This water in our bodies renews and replenishes itself every ten days or so. Each of us is a small vessel of borrowed water which we must continually empty and refill. The water that flows through the world also flows through us. Our life, too, is not ours to keep. It’s merely borrowed for a short while before it must be returned to that great mystery from which it came, a mystery we give many different names.”

Her paintings are ethereal; her wisdom an engaging life buoy of serenity in a mad world.