Kitty’s “Exit” painting spoke to me. I’m not sure I understand all she said, but I nodded and stroked my chin so she would think I knew. She’s quiet now, introspective, as paintings sometimes get, so I can stare a while without her becoming self conscious.

Two figures— dancers to me— stand on a platform suspended from an umbilical cord that runs up from Birth (an ovoid squiggly womb shape) to Death (the “exit” sign). One figure probes its bellybutton, no doubt pondering the umbilical cord that once attached mother. The other figure holds a dramatic pose, leaning over the edge, eyes forced closed, and hands shaping a graceful, ritualized symbol for an emotion the dancer has not felt personally. To train your body to hold poses that so universally represent a singular emotion is to abandon the possibility of feeling that emotion yourself, at least the way other people feel it. And that may be O.K., since it’s all pretty much about suffering anyway.

Another thought: both figures seem to focus their energy downward, toward the womb and its organic, mysterious curves and undulations, toward origins and the vast red pool at the bottom of it all— the Unknown. Looming over their heads is simple, logical clarity— an “exit” sign.  All our lives we perplex ourselves with the past and with the unknowable while the obvious truth goes unnoticed just over our heads: we are riding an umbilical bus toward Death.

By the way, “exit” is sort of backwards— it reads more clearly in the rearview mirror, like the front of an ambulance closing in on us.

Thanks for reading. Cheers,

Painting by Katherine “Kitty” Gibbons, photo by Boo-Creative.