Alone & Together In Life & Art- Nancy Hillis MD & Bruce Sawhill PhD
Alone & Together in Life & Art
Alone together in the Church of Blue
Lake Tahoe is one of my favorite places on Earth. I never get tired of staring at the improbably immense expanse of blue, constantly changing color by sun angle, wind, and reflections of clouds and surrounding mountains.
It is never the same twice, ranging through aquas and teals and cobalt blue and ultramarine.
Lake Tahoe, calm day
An old friend of mine and I swam almost three miles today, crossing our personal Rubicon. More than an homage to Julius Caesar because the shallow bay we swam across is called Rubicon Bay.
We first swam together fifteen years ago, and only did it one more time before today in all the intervening years.
Independently, we have each swum numerous swims in the area, and we have shared stories of them so exuberantly that we were unable to accurately remember whether we did them together or not! The other person was so spiritually present that the physical presence was almost secondary.
Swimming is an example of an activity that is “alone together.”
You can’t really talk or you’ll drown, so there is just the comforting presence of your companion and knowing that he is enjoying it as much as you are. It is enjoyed fully in retrospect, shivering on the shore and drinking hot coffee.
Cup of coffee
Swimming allows plenty of time for contemplation. The steady stroking and breathing sets up a rhythmical structure, a bass line of life’s sacrament.
And there we were, suspended in a blue so deep and so pure it was as if we were living bubbles in a stained glass window of Chartres blue.
Chartres Cathedral
And while we were suspended an agoraphobic inducing distance above the bottom, I started thinking about “alone together.”
What else is like this?
Many creative pursuits are.
Alone Together in Art
Very few people paint in teams, but they are often part of an artistic community. They paint knowing that other people in the community value and respect what they do, and they receive encouragement and inspiration just knowing that others are doing what they’re doing,
And once in a while they’ll actually converse and share notes and then carry on, alone together.
But there’s yet another kind of alone together. When you create an artistic work, you might know what inspired you to create it, but an “experiencer,” an audience member, might find it very inspiring but for totally different reasons!
The artwork brought two different people together by allowing for the freedom of different avenues into it. Requiring that experiencers relate to a creation in the same way as the creator did denies this unifying force.
Without this transcendent power of Art, life is as lonely as Thomas Wolfe wrote about in Look Homeward, Angel,
He understood that men were forever strangers to one another, that no one ever comes really to know any one, that imprisoned in the dark womb of our mother, we come to life without having seen her face, that we are given to her arms a stranger, and that, caught in that insoluble prison of being, we escape it never, no matter what arms may clasp us, what mouth may kiss us, what heart may warm us. Never, never, never, never, never.”
-Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)
A few weeks ago, Nancy painted a bold and vivid painting on a large scale, wide arcing brush strokes, a study in blue.
Bruce took one look at it and named it, “Tahoe Blue.” Nancy admitted that she wasn’t thinking about that lake at all when she painted it, but in retrospect it made sense.
Tahoe Blue, Dr. Nancy Hillis, 2022
Alone together, through art.
With gratitude from our studio to yours,
Nancy & Bruce
P.S. We’re getting closer to releasing our newest book: The Adjacent Possible: Guidebook & Stories of Artistic Transformation. Meanwhile, nab a copy of the first book in the series: The Adjacent Possible: Evolve Your Art From Blank Canvas To Prolific Artist.
The Adjacent Possible– Book Excellence Award Winner- Art
Alone and Together. I like the idea. I’ve always been a loner, yet I want to belong, without being owned.
Ive done most things alone. Not by choice. I’ve always looked at things or for things. I’m curious. I’m the eldest of four siblings and have painted since I was four. Not because I was guided toward it, but I just did.
Sometimes I wonder why. It was a refuge as I didn’t make friends easily. Rejection in a small town guided my life I suspect.
Now in my 70’s I still wonder why.
I left home at 17, alone. Travelled the world for 8 years, married at 23, had 2 children I had dreamed of for years then divorced had a partner for 24 years and now I’m still alone Why? I think I’m looking for my other half.
What an amazing feat. You are, indeed, a warrior woman. In being, in swimming, in writing, in art…!
I love that this piece starts with “Alone together in the church of blue”, because this sets up the story that follows.
My favorite portion is the point where you describe the two of you as being suspended…as living bubbles…
I felt the cold water, your warm friendship, and the hug of the surrounding mountains. I also love Lake Tahoe, but never thought of it in this way. Indeed, it is much like viewing an abstract painting.
Dear Nancy, I recently lost my husband of sixty years. Everyone says I should get out more. My son also suggested living. In an assisted living. However, I sold my large house (where I painted in the garage) and. Moved to a town house where I have, for the first time, .a beautiful studio. I enjoy watching your videos although I am not an abstract painter. I am starting to paint again and becoming inspired again. Just wanted you to know I am not alone in my studio…thanks again, ..best regards, Karen
Just so true, alone together! I just love it when people exclaim at some emotion or something they see. Best of all though, was a buyer who wrote to me and said that every time she walked into the room where it was hanging, she smiled ! I feel honoured . I paint to communicate and because I have to!
Going back through time, in my process of becoming, I remember the best gift were colored pencils and journals. My dad travelled a lot and often came back with a small journal and new art supplies. Over the years I have filled so many journals with much of what my web of life contains: life in all colors. Revisiting them often in dreams, deep feelings of emotions would well up. Some quotes, my own poetry, my thoughts, my colored images fills me with with gratitude. I still fill journals to this day and will surprise myself when I deliver some work that I am awed about. I do always remember what I tell others who are not confident : ” It is the process that you put your heart and soul in …..not the product”
This is a BRILLIANT painting!! I love your posts.
When I was young it seemed to me I had two options of broadening my world. Through books or experience. I chose experience – I’m dyslexic so it wasn’t a difficult choice.
I live in an artist community. Still, alone in my studio there are times I get vexed at the walls and windows. I’m aware that my experience is less than the whole world.
Thank you for consistently broadening my horizons, opening fields of perceptions while sharing these wonderful stories. They make my world a bigger place.
I love Nancy’s painting, too, as well for its energy and depth through layers of blues that surprisingly created new ones.
All very true. I like the coming together part as the viewer sees something for themselves in my work. That’s what tweaks my heart.