Art, Stories, and Picasso's Images of War and Peace

Hello beloved reader,

Picasso’s Guernica is perhaps a fitting image to match the sad and scary fact-of-life that ‘the orange one’ will once again, be a ‘so-called’ president.

I took this pic at the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid, in a rare space between viewers

If you Google Picasso’s Guernica, Wiki will tell you, “Its in-depth interpretation is controversial,” and that it is “a symbol of the terrible suffering that war inflicts on human beings.” It is, “regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history.”

Standing right in front of this enormous piece of art moved me. The sheer size, at 11.5 feet tall by 25.5 feet long (349.3 x 776.6 cm) is impressive, let alone the energy the art conveys.

Are we not due for a major evolution of consciousness so that we can move beyond the insanity of war?

Listening to Eckhart Tolle again recently, he spoke of how so much of what we consider “normal,” is insane.

Can we learn from the artists, the dreamers, the mystics?

Can we connect with our creativity and spirituality - our Inner Divinity?

Can we learn how to observe our humanity from our divinity, and not identify with every thought that passes through our mind? I am not my thoughts.

Can we learn to not identify with every emotion that arises, and will pass?

Can we create a spaciousness within, for thoughts and emotions? To simply observe them, not identify with them, knowing that all that arises, will cease?

Or will we need to go through destruction and possible total annihilation before rebirth?

Perhaps the re-election of the orange one will galvanize women once again into another type of #metoo movement.

May we be at a tipping point for the evolution of consciousness
for all human beings living on this planet✨🌟💖🙏🕊️

Once again I’m grateful for the privilege of travel. A few weeks ago, American Airlines sent out an e-mail featuring bargain priced tickets for flights to Madrid. Jamie booked us a week-long trip to enjoy Spanish food, art, and flamenco dancing. (And I have to share that I was happy not to be in America listening to the cacophony of news about the unfolding election.)

We traveled with the youngest of Jamie’s three brothers, who is an artist, and his wife, our Czech sister-in-law, both of whom work at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. Observations from these two added another layer of appreciation to viewing the artwork in each of the three museums that make up Madrid’s ‘Golden Triangle.’

The sheer number of pieces of art we saw blew my mind, let alone the quality and renown of work by Spanish artists Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. By experiencing the Spanish culture while simultaneously viewing works by these Spanish artists, I felt as though their artwork somehow made more sense to me. Like I got insight into how they fit into the worldwide tapestry of artists, through the conditioning of their own culture. Perhaps we’re all just threads in the worldwide tapestry of life, each of us at the mercy of the causes and conditions around us.

I didn’t know Dali painted realistic scenes too, like ‘Young Woman at a Window’ (number 2 below) where she gazes out to sea. Other greats included (in no particular order), Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Winslow Homer, Piet Mondrian, Gino Severini, Vincent Van Gough, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, and the list goes on and on — you may notice the lack of female artists in this list. Funny that. At least we got to see some stunning pieces from Georgia O’Keefe too (numbers 5 and 6 below). It was also refreshing to see voluptuous women in ‘The Three Graces’ by Rubens (number 3 below), in contrast to the modern obsession with anorexically thin women. Perhaps I identify with Rubens’ version of the female body😁 Please forgive the quality of my quickly snapped pics.

1. Picasso’s Mujer en azul (Woman in Blue), 2. Salvador Dali's 'Young Woman at a Window', 3. ‘The Three Graces’ by Rubens, 4. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Woman with a Parasol in a Garden', 5. Georgia O'Keefe's 'White Iris No. 7', 8. a surprise also from Georgia O'Keefe, 'From the Plains II'

But because 99% of these revered artistic masters are men, we are of course unconsciously conditioned to view women through the eyes of men. For example, this is from the audio narration (we bought the additional audio tours) for Picasso’s Woman in Blue (number 1 above).

“Here the woman is depicted as a representative of a worldly ambience, her gaunt, sharp features contrasting markedly with the apparent luxury of her clothes. A cross between courtesan of the modern world and prostitute, or femme fatale, Mujer en azul (Woman in Blue) reveals the new images of womanhood projected in late 19th century painting. At that time, the bohemian lifestyle revolved around late-night cafeterias and bordellos. Women tended to be considered at once both attractive and threatening, but always eminently sexual.”

Just that text, you can see, is still written from the male perspective.

But now, especially as more and more women writers come and play here on Substack, we get to create new cultural narratives from our own perspectives. We get to create stories that honor both the sacred masculine in addition to the divine feminine — and this is not about our gender’s physical form — it is about owning both the yin and the yang energies that exist within us all. And if we don’t own both energies, for men, it can lead to toxic masculinity, and for women we may collapse into a victim mentality. By embracing the yin and yang energies within each of us, we get to mitigate toxic expressions of masculinity and victimhood.

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While Guernica is hailed as one of the world's most moving anti-war paintings, Picasso was also invited to design an image to represent peace.

And yes, I indulged in the Reina Sofia Museum’s gift store with one of each😁

And with regards to flamenco dancing, I wrote this to a friend:

We just got home last night from a jam-packed trip to Madrid and I have to tell you how much I loved the flamenco. I was moved by it more than by any other dance performance I’ve experienced. There were two female dancers, one male dancer, a guy on the guitar, and two male singers — the chubbier singer had the most intense and incredible voice. They all performed together brilliantly and I had tingles up my spine several times throughout. The women dancers were especially spectacular. I really enjoyed Madrid overall, the food and the art are outstanding. And it was fascinating to experience the energy of the city. There is something about the Spanish culture; their intensity and integrity are interesting. We spent a day exploring in Toledo too — another synchronicity: Jamie’s uncle and his wife just happened to be in Madrid at the same time and were staying 10 minutes away from our Airbnb. They rented a car and drove us to Toledo for the day. Gotta love the synchronicities.

I will also share that the food was outrageously good. My first bite of a tapas dish took me into a sublime realm: a long, slow-cooked oxtail in a fine, translucent pasta cannelloni smothered in a luscious red tomato sauce layered with a white béchamel sauce. Perhaps one of the things I love most about tapas is how you get to sample so many dishes too. We also sampled a local ‘Vermut rosso’ which appeared to be a drink of choice for many Spaniards — at one tapas restaurant called La Concha, they served their own Vermut rosso with a spray of gin in addition to a splash of Campari. A variation on a Negroni cocktail.

~

Having shared the joys of travel, I also will share that it is not my intention to stick my head in the sand and ignore the possibility of the establishment of an authoritarian dictatorship in this country.

However, neither do I want to identify with the emotion of FEAR, nor be manipulated by fear. Fear is an emotion which arises and passes like all emotions do.

While the orange one will continue to manipulate with fear like a Machiavellian genius, I remind myself to maintain equanimity, cultivate compassion, loving kindness, mudita, and generosity, and to resist being sucked into the contamination of “othering” other people. Otherwise, whomever holds an opposing thought becomes ‘the enemy.’

To hold the paradox is the sign of wisdom. 

The ability to decide for yourself is there.