The Sublime Ordinary

Thoughts about the “Sublime Ordinary,” the title of my November 2022 exhibition at Toby’s Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station

There are words that describe or delineate what is factual. Then there are words that evoke or blossom beyond the factual. These words point to the essence of meaning, that give life, and are like wisps of smoke or breath; they are permeable and alive.

The “ordinary” is the building blocks of our existence and reality, what we see when we open our eyes in the morning.

It is the food on our plates, the faces of family and friends, the backs of heads on the bus, the dripping faucet, the eternal kaleidoscope of sky, sidewalks, telephone poles, and so on, the very stuff of our lives and existence.

And what is so “ordinary” is also the gateway to the sublime, the unknown disguised as the familiar. The sublime is the fascia and tissue that makes our lives living flesh and the consciousness that breathes spirituality into our being.

The sublime, subtle as light, shadow, and the essence of feeling, is just out of reach, is camouflaged as the ordinary. It suggests larger realms and the exquisiteness and pain of life.

It is beyond touch and senses, yet more familiar and foundational than breath.

This then is the abode of the "Sublime Ordinary." I don’t consciously aim for this in my art, but welcome this daily mysterious longing that makes life worthy of living.