Truth and Beauty

Yesterday both, truth and beauty. The truth part: I spent the morning of our first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, watching the CBC and listening to the Indigenous speakers, among them, survivors of the residential schools. Listening as they told us their stories. Listening as we acknowledge the history of our land. A step towards truth.

It's not for me to write about, it's only for me to listen and learn.

Then I knew I needed beauty. Online I went and booked a ticket for an afternoon slot at Beyond Monet, the immersive exhibit at the Toronto Convention Centre.

This required my first GO train ride in over 19 months! Where was that Presto card? I fished it out and checked the balance that remained. (Pre-COVID I used to commute into Toronto twice a week).  Even the GO train had changed. Now there were little plexiglass dividers between each seat.

Early for my timed slot at the exhibit, I went for a walk. How good it felt to walk the streets of downtown Toronto again. Up John street to King and across. The restaurants were still there. Up to Queen. So many cannabis shops now. Funky Queen was still funky.  And so much construction. Could there possibly still be space for more condo towers?

Then the exhibit. The first room was massive and circular, with a pond and bridge in homage to Monet's famous water lilies. All around the room hung huge silk screen panels of his paintings, artfully lit. It was mesmerizing. I stood and looked from every angle. A few steps back, further back, to the left. Each step showed me something different.

The first room with bridge and silk screen panels

Then into the immersive exhibit room, another huge circular one. I sat on a round stool (not an angle or straight line anywhere in the room) and watched the show as it swirled on the walls around me. It was pure magic. 

Along with his paintings, there were quotes from Monet and quotes from early naysayers who derided his work and that of other artists, coining the term 'impressionists'. Monet's inspiration was the beauty of nature, flowers and reflections of light on water, his Water Lilies being one of his most well-known.

I could have sat there for hours, although the show itself lasted about forty-five minutes.

The immersive room, the paintings swirling around on the walls and ceiling

I'm only now, in this late stage in life, this third act, really seeing the beauty in art, although it has hovered on the perimeter of my consciousness for years. 

In Madrid, a couple of years ago (again pre-COVID of course), I spent the whole morning at the wonderful Prado museum, captivated by the splendour of the paintings. 

Back then though, I had not yet started my own attempts at painting (begun in February of this year) nor my deeper appreciation of art. But something inside me might have been planted, might have started fermenting. 

My own painting of Water Lilies, done in April of this year, early into my new efforts

I've spent a lot of time in art galleries and museums in past years, but now I see with a different eye.

We must open our eyes and look for the beauty. But we must also seek and acknowledge the truth, even where there is no beauty.