Hidden Things

Another painting has been discovered beneath Picasso's masterpiece "The Blue Room".  X rays show that the painting underneath is this portrait...

It has long been a practice for artists to paint over an oil on canvas; probably to conserve canvases, or to begin another painting over one that they don't like, or to change the direction a painting is going.  The world is now fascinated by the portrait of the man beneath The Blue Room.  Who was he?  What significance did he have for Picasso?  Why did Picasso choose to paint over this portrait in favor of The Blue Room?  Much has been speculated and written about The Blue Room, but nothing is known about the man in the portrait.

It may have been as simple as a young, starving artist like Picasso who at the time reused the canvas to conserve his money.  Or perhaps Picasso saw an opportunity to have a woman model nude for him and felt the man in the painting could be painted over.  Whatever the reason a masterpiece came about; a very decisive moment for Picasso as an artist.

The point of my interest in this comes from the idea that painted over images are like our past and our ability to remember.  What is visible to the observer is often not the whole story....Thus the title of this post...Hidden Things.  

What is hidden from view in our lives?  Many things are hidden from that person as well as, and perhaps more so, than from the observer.  Painting over and rewriting our histories is a part of the human experience. Unfortunately the unremembered experience can have a powerful impact in and on our current functioning.

There are times when my life has gone in a direction that I came to not like.  These were times I have often attempted to hide from my conscious self.  Like the artist who paints over her previous brush strokes to create a different picture, my changing can be like the hidden images beneath the finished masterpiece.  But unless I recognize and accept these hidden images under the picture I cannot become who I truly am.

These hidden brush strokes are a part of who I am today.  The work, like the starving artist, are each a brush stroke toward the masterpiece; whether I like them or not, they are the strokes that have gone into my creation.  If we would consider our lives as masterpieces and that their creation is the process of all our work, conscious or unconscious, perhaps we can learn to accept ourselves without judgement and with the understanding that we each are a work in progress.

The process is what makes us interesting.  It is not for judgement by ourselves or others, but is for our learning from each experience.  In this way the different brush strokes create the masterpieces of life.  Painting over what was once there is how we evolve and grow.  Learning from both our successes and our mistakes are the brushstrokes that creates our lives.  All is necessary and important.  When we learn this important lesson we begin to step beyond judging and into the awareness that each life is special.

The realization that artists may start, paint over, and start again their art is a wonderful metaphor of living life; realizing that each brushstroke is a learning experience that helps us unfold and evolve into becoming authentically who we are.

It time and with conscious work I believe we each will become a masterpiece of our lives; much like Monet's Morning on The Seine: