In my room you will find all aspects of my character, there is no ceiling here, nothing to stop my thoughts from flight. Above me the pure, clean dome of a parachute. I close my eyes and feel the thrill as I hurl myself out of the plane, no going back now! ‘One thousand, two thousand, three thousand.... Check Canopy! Then relax! I listen to the drone of the plane’s engine dwindle to no more than the sound of a bumble bee. I listen. I hear nothing but the pounding of my heart beating time as the toy town below grows bigger. Am I falling? I am weightless, just floating wherever the breeze tide takes me in a vast waterless ocean with more space than I could ever imagine. Everything I am, have been or ever will be entrusted into the care of a vast white mushroom canopy. Foolish perhaps, but what euphoria nature’s needle injects into my soul.
This is exciting..
My room has an ocean where I find total tranquility. I hold bread out to them, their colours shine and glisten as the Caribbean sun spears through the watery blue. I feel a cacophony of tiny tails brush against my skin as they twist and turn as one beautiful marine cloud of buoyant colour. No longer am I outside the picture, I am part of it as I reach out and gently stroke the strange wet flower arrangements illuminated by talons of sunlight. Protected in this watery greenhouse, never to stand in a cut crystal vase on a doyled window sill as their terrestrial counterparts suffer, nor will the fish ever hear the irritating sound of routine bubbles emanating from a miniature plastic diver.
This is freedom.
On the wall of my room hangs the sad fate of poor Ophelia lying in her watery grave. Sir John Everett Millais’ Raphaelite beauty is tranquil amidst a garland of fateful flowers, which, forever bright, remain an oil memorial on a canvas shroud.
This is sadness.
From Ophelia to Patsy. A character with a designer sack of neuroses who is barely visible behind a nictoine cloud of youthfulness. Patsy sits in my room blatantly ignoring ageism, sexism, alcoholism and any other ‘ism’, none of which applies to her. She thumbs her powdered nose at convention with outstanding panache and as she views my painting, asks if I think Ophelia’s dress is La Croix (Sweetie) or Westwood. Death would be more wellcome than the indignation of reaching the age when ladies’ knickers have an obligatory 18 inches between waistband and gusset! No-one will ever burst Patsy’s Bollinger bubble and this make-believe outrageous character makes me smile and inspires me.
This is fun.
From Itchicoo Park’ to Guell Park, this too is in my room. Gaudi’s bizarre stone trees, reptilian fountains and mosaics reflect my total admiration of mans’ eccentricities. Within me a desire to be outrageous in deed as well as thought. But my aspiration, like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, tower upward, unique but incomplete. Perhaps some things are better left unfinished. Marilyn Monroe, Beethoven’s unfinished symphony, Apollo 13 mission and the music of John Lennon. Had they continued, the magic may have been lost. A file submitted to the archive is soon forgotten, but those left open will stay alive, feeding on the curiousity of enquiring minds.
This is aspiration.
In another corner of my room sits Dian Fossey, she is quiet and does not speak to me, she has no need for human company. I watch her cocooned in the soft gentle blackness of a family of mountain gorillas. An old silver-back strokes her hair, comforting her. I see the joy in her eyes and the gentle smile as she relaxes into the cushion of this shy amiable giant and I know she is happy to be his pet for a while allowing the protected to become the protector.
This is admiration.
They have no fear of hunters here as the only hunter around is Orion, barely visible in the black velvet sky. His speck of light pierces through the darkness with countless companions in a timeless quest to reach us. Their light, an intimate glow for lovers, inspiration for the artist, a challenge for the scientist and for me, nature’s nocternal balm soothes, comforts, and the magnitude of it all reminds me just how small my room is.
This is awesome.
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