Much Madness is divinest Sense

L'Arbre de vie by Seraphine Louis
Oil on Canvas, 1928

Much Madness is divinest Sense-

To a discerning Eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

"Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - you're straightway dangerous-

And handled with a Chain -

- Emily Dickinson 1862

George's post Whistle while you work sparked some lively conversation and also got me thinking in top gear. It reminded me of a film we saw a while back and which made an indelible impression on me. That of the life of the French artist, Seraphine Louis. To draw you into the conversation that led to this post, please follow the link above that will also take you to the comments at the end of the post.

An excerpt from Medicographia 103 explains her tragic life this way:
"What a singular destiny that of Séraphine Louis. Born into a needy peasant community in Picardy, France, in 1864, who could have foreseen that life’s path would lead her to the pantheon of French
naïve artists between the two World Wars? Mystical, prone to visions, this fey artist praised by the surrealists painted, she said, at the behest of the Virgin Mary. Ever more mysterious enlaced flowers, leaves, and fruits thrived in the heaven bound “garden of paradise” that grew out of the ramblings of her unconscious mind. Provided for and encouraged by Wilhelm Uhde, the German art collector who discovered Picasso and Henri Rousseau, her works exhibited, Séraphine over the years drifted through visions and fancies and on into madness. Committed to a lunatic asylum in 1932, she died there 10 years later, utterly destitute, leaving to the world of art her numinous experience incarnate in paintings of the “Good Lord’s garden.”
Medicographia. 2010;32:210-216 (see French abstract on page 216)"

What struck me in the film was the way she sang canticles while painting obsessively in her studio with windows flung open over the town's rooftops. It is said that townspeople knew from her singing when a painting was completed.

Her genius was described by Uhde as "An extraordinary passion, a sacred fervor, a medieval ardor." It seemed the line between passion and insanity, in her case, got blurred and finally gave way.

How little we understand of each other's inner worlds.

Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (110)

Die Week Na 'n Dood Sebastien op sy gelukkigste - by water, besig om vis te vang Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Musiek Sebastien het altyd gesê, "I like old music.' Hy het. Billy Joel se Piano Man was vir baie lank die ringtone op sy foon. Dat ons só gelukkig kan wees, dankie Sebas. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory / From The Restory (135)

Onlangse Oorsig / Recent Summary Foto's Van Onlangse Gebeure / Pictures Of Recent Events 'n Huis opgeknap en geverf met 'n nuwe badkamer, die koms van lente en reën, retreats, die CMR se breimarathon, aanbied en afsluiting van die Verfrissingskursus in geestelike begeleiding, bywoon van ons kleindogter Ariana se gradeplegtigheid ("Nee Oupa, dis 'n gradige plegtigheid!") voordat sy volgende jaar grootskool toe gaan. A house renovated and painted with a new bathroom, the arrival of spring and rain, retreats, the CMR's knitting marathon, presenting and finishing the Refresher course in spiritual guidance, attending our granddaughter Ariana's graduation before she goes to big school next year. Klank / Sound Die klank van sagte reën na die storm is op baie vlakke nou gepas. The sound of gentle rain after the storm is now appropriate on many levels. Met ons liefde, soos altyd. With our love, as always. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (120)

Skuld as Motivering Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek ~ ❖ ~ "I am convinced that guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely the defenses of the False Self as it is shocked at its own poverty — the defenses of a little man who wants to be a big man. God leads by compassion toward the soul, never by condemnation. If God would relate to us by severity and punitiveness, God would only be giving us permission to do the same (which is tragically, due to our mistaken images of God, exactly what has happened!)." Richard Rohr ~ ❖ ~ "It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need friends before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when they see us for what we fully are, they won't run away screaming w...

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