Musings at a Fine Arts Festival, Grapefest 2011

David Tripp's art booth at Grapefest 2011

As I write this, I’m nearing the close of the third night of a four-day art festival.  This is a first for me, and I must say the thirteen-hour days are taxing.  I’m quite numbed by all of it, though sales this evening have been brisk.

Ralph Waldo Emerson has been a sublime companion these past few days, while seated in the booth during slow periods.  His essay “Experience” somehow has escaped me over the years.  I know I have read it at least twice, but tonight it has really stirred me artistically.  I’m going to cite a passage from his essay that threw my personal philosophy of painting into bold relief:   “Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus. . . . Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung.”

I had to close the book and take a deep breath, I was so rocked.  I call my company Recollections 54 because it marks my birth year, and the objects in my present day-to-day landscape which hold me are the ones that conjure up memories of my childhood in the late 1950’s.  As Proust has consistently recorded in his literary masterpiece, our senses take us back to childhood memories that are worth remembering.

The beauty of today was grounded in shared experiences as patrons viewed and purchased my watercolor compositions, and shared their memories with me.

Thank you for reading.

Tags: Americana, art festival.Ralph Waldo Emerson, Grapefest, Grapevine, Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, Texas, wine festival