Overflowing with tears, my body was filled to the brim : 100th Post

Quite a few years ago at one of my art shows I had a curious experience with a woman. She attempted several times to approach me and to start a conversation. Each time she burst into tears a walked away. At the time I was concerned for her. Why was this woman crying every time she tried to speak to me? At the last moment of the event she was finally able to speak. She said to me “ Your art speaks to a place in me. It fills and overwhelms me to tears. Thank You “ she said.

I have experienced this in my life primarily with music. The song that says everything you wish you could….. A feeling deep inside that bursts upward ….A moment in time, stilled ....but rarely with art.
With art my usual response is of the mind not the body…. I connect and value, appreciate the technical achievement, and even awe at image.

It is a rare event to find art that touches you in such a way that it fills you to the brim …. and with no other place to fill the tears overflow outward….. it moves so you deeply….opening that sense of connection . An awaking of sorts, a blissful moment of recognition. ……

This is what its all about for me and unexpectedly, This was the position I found myself in on Friday night as I walked through the Lesley Dill exhibit “I heard a Voice” at Smith College.
I had enjoyed her talk. I had connected with her message, appreciated the work.
It was nice…………..THEN I went into the exhibit….Where I was filled to the brim….and reminded about the woman who once came up to me at one of my shows with tears in her eyes.

Art can be powerful!