Thank You, Leonard Cohen

Posted on | May 31, 2009 |

Last night Leonard Cohen played to a packed house at the beautiful old Wang Center in Boston and we were so very blessed to be there.  It’s hard to put into words the ways in which his very artfully constructed concert and presence brought tears to our eyes.  The music was brilliant—every single musician absolutely first rate and the sound so beautifully balanced that even up in the rafters we could hear every instrument and every word.  One of the great things about the words and music is that they open your heart and light it up too.  He keeps telling the human story of how we fail to love each other and, hearing the stories,  we recognize ourselves and somehow inch a little closer to compassion.  Hallelujah.

He’s 74 now and I don’t expect he’ll tour for much longer even though he’s off next to Europe.  I really hope he’ll do more writing when he gets back home.  He inspires us to be fully present, to see what’s there in the world and in our own hearts.  There’s a beautiful sense of detachment in his presence now and at the same time every song is full of feeling.

At the end of the concert he introduced and thanked even the truck drivers who schlepp the equipment from gig to gig.  Then he said good night, how glad he was to have been here and asked us to be as kind as we can.  Amen and thank you, Leonard Cohen.

The London concert from last year is now available on DVD here.

Yesterday was also the last class for this season for The Saturday Morning Drawing Club.  We made an experiment and drew the whole morning with our eyes shut.  We drew images from our heads of flowers and faces first.  The results were surprisingly accurate and humorously inaccurate sometimes.  But in all cases the artist’s hand was free, unselfconscious and full of life.  Brilliant.  Then we looked at a photograph for a minute, closed our eyes and drew that.  It was practice for observation and memory—training really in being totally present and alert.  Sometimes we had to draw several times before it became a little more accurate, but it did.  I know from experience, if our eyes had been open, our drawings might have been more accurate but tighter and less lively.  Drawing blind got us a little closer to truth we can feel.

The best thing about spending a Saturday morning drawing together is the fun and happiness.  But, now, we’ll break for the summer and do our own thing until we meet again in September.

I apologize for being a lax blogger of late.  I’m working away on the drawing book—collecting art, making art, editing and designing.  It’s exciting to be able to share all the good things that happen in the Saturday morning drawing class in book form.  And now that I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel I promise to blog every week.  Thanks so much for visiting—I’m always so happy to hear from you.  May your own work and life be full of light and love.

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