The art of fishing

Dullstroom with Rob and Liam

There had been a huge rainstorm the night before. At 7:00 the following morning, there were fields of little diamonds everywhere. So very beautiful.

By 11 am the diamonds were still there.

How many people get to walk in fields of diamonds and flowers. Can there be anything more beautiful and precious in the world?

Five days ago, I finished a painting which challenged me to the core. I am a classic artist, a fine artist and yet, saying this, I am also just another artist with a soul full of stories and a need express them.

On looking up aesthetics...aesthetics in art, beauty, Chinees aesthetics, Indian aesthetics, I came across a quotation by Tolstoy, which explained the reasoning behind art, the purpose and motivation...for any art.

"Art is a human activity consisting of this, that one man conciously, by means of certain external signs, hands onto others, feelings he has lived through, so that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them". (The use of the word 'infecting' is an interesting choice of words.)

Thus, the value of art is one with empathy.

I now understand why I have not been comfortable/'able' to venture out as an 'expressive' contemporary artist...I am afraid of the subconcious, 'infecting' others with the desease of something horrible that might be hiding there.

We went to Dullstroom with Letitias family for a few days. Anton has not managed to process his loss, and Jenna still does not understand. Megs, well, she will have many heart-sore days to face.

We havent gone fly fishing for a while, and this time was so different to the last.

For me it was a time to quieten my soul, to breath and hear myself breath, to listen to nothing.

Like everything we do, it had nothing to do with the catch, but simply the sence of 'being able'...we catch fish in our lives, throughout our lives, and then what.?? We dont value the fish, only the experience of the catch,to be able to say...'I can catch a fish', or 'I caught a fish' , but I wonder, how much value does that little fish have. Once eaten, its served its purpose and then its forgotten....but not the experience, or the fact that we were 'able'

No, I didnt catch a fish this time, and niether did Rob...our darling son did and was soooo chuffed, as was I for him.

I caught three crabs, a rediculous tan, a cold and possibly trench-foot from four days of wet feet...but I happily caught up on a bit of family time too.