Mountain Thunderstorm

2/4/22

On February 1, the first day of the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese calendar, there was a blowup between family members which for me, although only a bystander, felt quite triggering and activating. The house felt quite charged with “tiger energy.” I didn’t quite know what  to do with it. I closed the door to the room I’m using as a makeshift study, office, and art studio, put on headphones, and blasted “Back In Black” by AC/DC. This seemed to help release some of the pent up energy. I then decided to paint. I decided to honor Chinese New Year by finding a playlist of Chinese classical music. I started the music and got out my painting supplies, deciding to go with black ink only. As the music played, I allowed the movements it inspired in my body to flow through my arm, through my fingers and into my brush. I found myself painting jagged lines that formed themselves into rocky, craggy mountains. The painting continued to almost make itself. At a certain point, I felt the mountains and rocks were “done,” and I, remembering the advice my classmate Tiffany had offered when we’d zoomed some time earlier, to utilize various shapes and not simply stick to lines, started to make dark clouds floating over the mountains. Once a few clouds were in place, I knew I had to paint some lightning. I used jagged lines that were somewhat similar to the lines making up the mountains, and so my lightning bolts blended into the landscape, the rocks. I finished the painting, photographed it, and shared the picture with my wife and her brother, who both loved it. In a remarkable synchronicity, just after that, a song that sounded extremely familiar came onto the Chinese classical playlist (which contains over 500 songs, playing randomly on “shuffle”). I almost instantly recognized it as the exact song and exact recording that my online painting instructor uses on his videos, entitled “Amazing Red Sun.” All in all a very interesting and meaningful experience, during which I seemed to discover way to work with intense emotion through visual art.