Have a second look at Reflections, paintings by Naomi Cairns currently on exhibit at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery.

We live in this painted place. We see the light, and water, and the mute presence of stone and tree. These often live in the shadow of our awareness, until Naomi repositions our looking. Here are some ways her art brings us closer to the essence of these ordinary things.

Open to the intense presence of the things we never look at.
Go to the gallery for a second look. Stand a distance away from a painting. Close your eyes. Feel your breathing and your inner sensations. Just be
content with this awareness, do not try to change or judge what you experience. Open your eyes, and feel yourself open to the intense presence of these things we mostly never look at. Free yourself from
mental talking, and allow the silence to reveal their intense presence

Let the ordinary enter into us and let us enter into them.
Move a few feet closer to the painting, so that its outer edges are just on the periphery of your vision. Be fascinated with the painted forms to no other purpose. Contemplate the stone, cloud, water, myriad things that are simple and available without us needing to do anything but let them in.

See what is invisible.
Step within inches of the painted surface so that your immediate view is filled with the detail of the brushwork. The marks themselves are a source
of calm, of sweeping gesture, of curious purpose. See what is invisible to those who do not look. Be touched by the touch of the artist's hand.

Plan to attend the Literary Friday, August 1 at 7 pm at the gallery and plumb the depths of your creativity in an engaging and playful way.

Reflections continues Friday from 6-9, Saturday and Sunday the 2nd and 3rd, from 2-6 at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery.