Saturday, February 2, 2013

It's Groundhog's Day! Don't get stuck in the past

Whenever I think about Groundhog's day, I don't think about the animal itself or the purpose of the day. I think about the Bill Murray movie where the day keeps repeating itself.

Do you feel that you are consciously or unconsciously stuck in the past? That was the inspiration for the first painting in my Brain Series called "Past, Present, Future or Dreaming".

The idea for this painting came from realizing, at a certain point in my life, that there were a couple of people around me that seemed to be stuck in the past. Like nothing that would happen in the present mattered. What happened in the present was only relevant in the context of the past. For someone on the outside of that thought process, it just didn't make sense. For those within it, it at some point became a natual way to think.

Personally, I think the past is only relevant when it has to do with present moment decision making. As an example, I'm at a restaurant and there's shell fish on the menu. Based on a prior experience with shell fish, I learned to stay away from it. Therefore, I make the decision to pick something else from the menu and continue being in the moment with whoever I'm having dinner with. Done. Period. 

Instead for someone living in the past, they may see shell fish on the menu and go back into that experience of what happened the last time they had it. Perhaps they fell it, vomited, went to the hospital, etc. In doing that, the luxury of being in the moment is long gone. All that was really needed in that moment of seeing shell fish on the menu was recalling that you had a bad experience and will not order it. Done. Period. 

If you feel that you are stuck in the past, feel free to share your experience here. I would recommend the book "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. Don't be surprised if you find yourself reading it a couple of times.


Regards,
Michelle Hunter
Contemporary Artist 
Tel: (646) 504-5034 
www.hunterart.com 
info@hunterart.com 
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The Brain Series of Paintings, so far: http://hunterart.blogspot.com/p/brain-paintings.html 
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