Life at the Corner of Now and Not Yet
Don't Look Away When It's Looking At You
Nihilanth
 |
| Watching the End of the World |
Brain Scorcher
By Tom Wachunas
“…I
invite viewers to embark on a journey of contemplation and introspection, to
confront the inevitability of mortality and the eternal quest for meaning. As
we embrace the mystery of life and death, we come to understand the fragile
beauty of our shared humanity, and the boundless depths of the human spirit. We
are all arriving somewhere, but not here.”
- Kit
Palencar
“Everything
that is visible hides something that is invisible.” – René Magritte
Ah, but
a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? - Robert Browning
Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
– Hebrews 11:1
EXHIBIT: Arriving
Somewhere, But Not Here – Paintings by Kit Palencar, at the Canton Museum
Of Art/ 1001 Market Ave. N., Canton, Ohio/ THROUGH MARCH 2, 2025 / Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from
10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Sundays 1-5 p.m.
Admission is free on Thursdays and the first Friday of every month
Artist
statement:
With only a few more days left to view the marvelous
exhibit by Cuyahoga Falls painter Kit Palencar at the Canton Museum of Art, my NOW
is a mortifying state of apology for the lateness of this post. Please rest
assured I’m not so self-possessed to think that my words alone would prompt
anyone to see a particular art show at the last minute. But hey, I can dream,
can’t I? Still, at this juncture I simply wish to offer my real gratitude for
the museum’s curatorial generosity and wisdom in giving us this show, and most
importantly, for Palencar’s profoundly soul-probing visions.
One of his exquisitely crafted paintings, titled
Don’t Look Away When It’s Looking At You, is especially compelling to me.
The dramatic, haunting spirituality which it embodies – both perplexing and
vivifying - is characteristic of the entire exhibit.
Standing
in front of the painting as an observer, I nonetheless had the uncanny
sensation that I too had been somehow painted into the scene to join the group
of people depicted in the painting itself. What is the strange, pale-walled enclosure
wherein they sit? There’s no ceiling. Sky is visible overhead, as well as
through a small rectangular opening on the wall in front of us. Is this a classroom,
a theater, a sanctuary? Am I present at, or interrupting, an impending event?
Am I late for a lecture, a play, a dance or sermon? One woman in the group has turned
her head and looks very intently at me. I can almost hear her speaking the
title of the painting, “Don’t look away…”
Is she Palencar’s conscience, his muse? Or mine? Or yours?
Poignant,
mystifying and illuminating all at once, the beautiful paintings in this exhibit
are eloquent object lessons in contemplation. Thomas Merton’s definition
of that word perfectly captures the essence of Palencar’s work: Contemplation
is at once the existential appreciation of our own “nothingness” and of
the divine reality, perceived by ineffable spiritual contact within the depths
of our own being.
The
depths of our own being. Don’t look away.
