World Without End

Our daughter is a painter. Have I mentioned that before?  And have I mentioned how proud (and blessed) we are to have this gentle, accomplished, and grace-filled woman in our lives?  As an artist who creates images exploring context within the seeming chaos swirling amid the technological and media-driven life of the 21st century, Barbara seeks to find and explore "idiosyncratic order amidst disorder."  Exactly how do we make meaning out of chaos?

 Last night her solo show opened at The Schulman Project  a neat little gallery in north Baltimore, situated in the middle of a charming (in "Charm City") street, lined with shops, restaurants, and galleries.  It was this neighborhood's "First Friday," and it was a  soft April evening, perfect for strolling down the avenue.  A steady stream of people--invitees, friends, and casual passers-by, walked in and circled throughout the gallery, making for a warm night of art and conversation.

Our family converged on the city....family reunions, rarer than we'd like, are sweet, indeed.

The name of Barbara's show is "World Without End."  

 An allusion to a doxology, a liturgical hymn of praise, "world without end" is the title of this show comprising Barbara's paintings.  Word nerd that I am, I was curious about the etymology of the word "doxology":

  mid 17th cent.: via medieval Latin from Greek doxologia, from doxa ‘appearance, glory’ (from dokein ‘seem’) + -logia (see -logy).

When teaching young writers, I frequently purported that the title chosen to name a writing is worth pondering, just as their parents thought long and hard about bestowing on them the names they carry. The juxtaposition of my daughter's contemporary and abstract paintings and images, her colorful and joyful considerations of life in the 21st century, to a doxology, a phrase with deep ecclesiastical and liturgical roots, is pleasing and oh-so-very right; her work and her life are, especially to her father and to me, a certain and sweet hymn of praise.

... As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.