I found a lovely cactus with some wonderful shadows projected onto its pot. I was actually pricked by spines while filming this video so I was personally reminded of the symbolism of cacti. One of the spines was very thin and stayed in my body and kept hurting while I was driving home. Since we are in the beginning of Lent my thoughts gravitated to Christian symbolism.
Lent is a Christian time of penitence that signifies the Jewish and Christian references to 40 days in the desert. Our lives are like deserts during hard, dry and unfruitful times. These become the shadows of our life. Even if you are not religious, it’s a good to think about the deserts in your own life and what you learned from them.
The shadows cast by his cactus are very intricate and beautiful. They were the first thing I was attracted to when trying to choose a painting topic. They can remind us that even though we may not like the shadows of our own life, those shadows too, can become a thing of beauty if seen in the proper light.
So how do we relate this to painting?
It seems to me that just like a cactus, a painting has spines. The spines of a cactus can wound you. What are the wounds in your own life that are preventing you from fully expressing yourself in your life and art? Is there something in the next 40 days that you can do to mend your wounds? The shadows projected by this cactus are gnarly and prickly but also very interesting and beautiful. Can you think of a hard time in your life that later was seen as a necessary step that added value to your life?
Spines are also like pointing fingers.You can also drive the viewer out of the painting through poor composition that leads the eyes out. Have you included a path that can lead your viewer safely through the painting?
An important thing to remember is that the cacti are also a source of water in the desert. Does your composition have some rest area free of the pointing fingers? These areas are like refreshing water in a desert.
So cacti offer us a symbolic way to think about things that push people away from our paintings and those things that offer our viewers refreshment. And of course, we may not just be speaking of painting here. The shadows a cactus projects really is very interesting and beautiful and remind us of our own lives. And we are reminded too, that the natural world speaks to us very quietly but powerfully through symbol.