Solitude

Artwork 12x9 Birch Bark, Gouache, Watercolor, Ink on Museum Quality Paper

This original handmade birch bark painting by BJ Rushton is made from bark sourced from Serenity Farm and Woods and the surrounding area. Perfect for any nature lover, each varying piece of bark placed carefully in place is a testament to the artist's love of nature.

When I first started this piece, my mind was in a reflective place, maybe a slightly depressed state, it happens. The feeling of the piece was stark and lacking in color, but somehow comforting. There was a small house and a single tree with drooping branches, an image reflective of my own place in this world at this moment in time.

I took a walk into the woods and my eyes fell upon a tree with a section of bark coming off. It was as if the bark was speaking to me, ‘let me be part, let me bring something’. So I took the bark, brought it home and added it to the piece. The piece changed. I changed.

I showed the piece to some close friends who said ‘why not have some color’, we looked at photos together of the sky and its beauty, the incredible diversity of color that can exist there. Some images of Van Gogh paintings were sent as inspiration. I added some color, then more color. I changed. The piece changed.

A quote from Nietzsche showed up in my day. “My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.” This gave me an entirely new perspective of solitude. It is a happy place, a place of calm and contentment. 

In today’s world we have so many ways to connect with each other, the connections become transactional - a like, a love, a gif, a short video. These short bursts of others come into my world like seeds, an opportunity to build something deeper, stronger, true company. Or a seed that is blowing in the wind off to plant itself somewhere else, far from my roots. I can choose. 

This piece is also reflective of many things I have been thinking about lately as I begin to think of spring and have been planting seeds and preparing for the big event. I think about water sitting so far under the ground being pulled up into a tree through the soil, bringing nutrients that get converted into something completely new, a branch, with a leaf that open itself to the sun. The droplets water moving into the air, collecting and gathering with others then falling down from the sky back into the soil to be soaked up again. 

I hope you enjoy it. I hope it comes into your solitude as true company. 

- BJ Rushton