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Japan September Hokkaido

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Good morning. Time goes by so fast, it was been already 1 month since the muse arrived at my home.

I was impressed with the work which travel across the countries.
I’m glad to have such an opportunity and whenever I explain about the work to the people, I’ve come to love the work.
I feel an affinity with the work, like it had been for many years in my room.

おはようございます。> 展示させて頂いて早いもので一か月がたちます。

地域を超えてこの作品が旅をしていることに感動
この様な作品を知る機会とこの作品についてお客様から尋ねられて説明のたびに愛着がわきます。昔からここにあった様な親近感がありました。

 

Russia September Ivanovskoe

My job is connected to the media.  I see thousends of links like yours on facebook daily. My girlfriend showed me the same link and I thought… if it happens twice in one day why not just do it? I always look for new experiences and this one could be a new one for me. I never joined in art projects before. When you are used to art it is quite obvious to join in but I am not directly connected to art.

 

There are two parts I like to tell.

First the logistics was in a good way. I picked it up, bring it to my home, unpack it, find the best place to put it and bring it over to the next person. 

Second the art work itself. It is not a realistic picture. I saw three different pictures depending on the mood at the time. First I saw a kind of landscape, second it looked like a mirror when something is broken and unstable not very good, like maybe a broken heart.

Third it reminds me also of a playingcard, was it a queen, an ace or a joker I didn’t find out.

Depending on the mood there were three types of artworks to me.

 

I placed the art in the entrance of my house at a clear wall. The most busy place, completely in view.

 The fact there are 35 others in the project makes me feel part of a big chain. Like a membership in a magical community. It gives a good feeling. In everyday life we are members of lots of different communities. This one feels like a hidden one.

 

Being in the project felt in the beginning like when you cross a stranger and invite him or her to your home. You have to get used to their habits, timetable, way of life. You normally take a resistance and after a time it gets less and less and then you become friends as it was with the art. We became friends.

 As the project goes on I am interested in the experiences of the others, it might be something new I missed out on myself.

The biggest value to the project for me is the communication with the art and the other people. The whole feeling of this chain like a network is unbelievable. The ability for people to discover something new.

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USA September Lancaster PA

A source of inspiration was delivered to my door last week.   Since I had agreed to participate in Silent Muse …in gaze of the beholder project initiated by Breda artist Ellen Haarhuis, I was intrigued by the international scope of the undertaking.  When I first agreed to be part of the Silent Muse, it was the concept of hosting her art in my home that held appeal, but the reality of the project had the most impact on me once it arrived at my door.   

I decided to display the piece in my entryway so that visitors are welcomed by the work of art unlike any of the other that grace my townhome walls.  Most of my displayed art are representational renderings where a person, landscape or repeated motif are the subjects.  Ellen’s art is clearly modern and graphic, by comparison of the art displayed in my home.  The lines and shapes complement the space on the canvas.  When a friend visited me last week, she was drawn to the addition in my foyer.  She stared at the piece for a few brief minutes and then began to see objects in the rendering.  She said, “I see a whale in two places!”.  She wanted to identify a familiar object in the same way that I linger and detect objects when I gaze at billowy clouds in the sky on a tranquil afternoon.

As I walk by the drawing, the art’s creative energy captures my attention.  During the second week, I placed “Morag”, a handmade doll created by a Kentucky artist.  She resembles a forest nymph that holds a stark contrast to The Silent Muse.  Perhaps Morag will come to life and gaze at the lovely piece of artwork while the household is in slumber?

As I am hosting The Silent Muse, I found inspiration.  Musing over the art has forced me to be still.  This stillness is essential now that I am at a crossroads in my life.  My life as a teacher, librarian and public relations professional was tucked away on a shelf entitled “my past work life” once I retired.  As a newly retired widow, I have become restless to feed my creative urges with trying new adventures.  I am finding that the stillness is whispering directions while I am at those crossroads.  Those whispers inspired by the art, encouraged me to extend myself beyond the responsibility I feel as host and muser.  Sitting with the art while I sip my morning tea, I let my mind wander where the lines and shapes take me.  I found myself going on an internal journey.  I even imagine that I am a miniature navigator traversing over line and shape of her work.  Although the lines are linear on the canvas, the impact of my musings are circuitous like the human-life experiences that are boundless.  During the time that The Silent Muse art is in my home, opportunities in my life have appeared.  I realize that if a follow any one of those prospects, even a slight shift in my action will take me in another direction. 

As humans we all long for connection---whether it be with other humans, art, music, nature, and the creative world. In the same way that music knows no boundaries, the same holds true with art.  Like listening to music, observing art transcends language barriers. 

During this last week of my temporary hosting task, the art now hangs in my bedroom.  While there in its new space, I am eager to find out what additional musing will reveal.  That is the beauty of being open to where inspiration will take me.

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