Once I met a swan,
a beautiful beautiful swan,
flying far across the sky,
beyond the mountain high,
far beyond the moonlight song,
much farther than beyond
the world I knew
of grayish hue,
a tepid view
of life.
This painting was inspired and commissioned by a man who had a series of lucid dreams in which he discovered an empyrean realm, one which I like to call The Floating Valley of the Rainbow Swan. As the story goes, after a long and arduous journey, he was propelled into a vast and brilliant otherworld, glittering with great plumed creatures of such magnificence and beauty that with just one glance, he would become the grace and calm of a thousand lakes. Enraptured, he transformed into one of these majestic birds, and dwelled there for what seemed eternity... But, as destiny would have it, he did not remain there for all time, as he could have so easily done. He decided to bring that state of grace back to Earth, to bring heaven to the land. This was his personal hero's journey and discovery of the path of the Bodhisattva, a path for one who achieves enlightenment, but delays Nirvana in order to help suffering beings.
The swan shows us that even when things may look a bit dismal and gray, that all things can develop over time, especially with gentle loving care, into something more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. When we are in a place of trying to fit in, to be something we are not, we cannot see the beauty that awaits us, the beauty that already is.
More on my creative process for this painting can be found here soon.
