Unveiling... a little piece of serenity

"I imagine the silence and stillness of sitting in that little pointed alcove, unaffected by the turbulence of the waters around me" Continuing the series of responses by my son the writer Joseph Sale.

Into the Blue - mixed media

There’s a saying among novelists that ‘one idea does not a great novel make’. It’s always the intersection between two (or more) great ideas that form an intriguing story. This image embodies this, for me. On the one hand, it uses architectural shapes that remind us of classical geometry. On the other, it uses a kind of roiling textured paintwork that gives us the impression of an ocean or water. In the top left-hand corner, gold plays across the ripples, suggesting light from some far-above surface trickling down into the deep. The piece is called ‘Into the Blue’ and in this it makes me think of two things. Firstly, ‘blue’ as in the mood of being down, from which the musical genre gets its epithet. Secondly, ‘blue’ meaning ‘the ocean’. Interesting, in the middle of the piece, bordered off by the curved arch-lines, there is a place where the water is undisturbed. This hollow draws our focus. It is like a little piece of serenity found somewhere deep within. A bubble of calm. Looking at this piece makes me feel sad and peaceful at the same time. I imagine the silence and stillness of sitting in that little pointed alcove, unaffected by the turbulence of the waters around me. At the same time, there, I am shut off from the light trying to reach me by a solid wall. I cannot help but think the curved walls are also somehow symbolic of the walls of the human skull. These are the external barriers that do not permit light into the dark, deep caverns of our minds.