This TED Talk is about an artist who developed a shake in his hand that made it impossible to draw. Or so he thought. While he could no longer manage the precise dots of pointillism that he longed for, he began to explore what he could accomplish not in spite of, but because of his limitation.

 

Wow. 

 

The ten minutes I spent, well twenty because I watched it twice, felt like a trip to the Metropolitan Art Museum: the Mona Lisa painted with hamburger grease, The Creation of Adam on a banana, a portrait on stacked Starbucks cups. This artist used his tremor as a springboard to creative openings he never would have found if he had gotten what he wanted... a steady hand. 

 

He created a series called Goodbye Art, including pieces that self destruct. Some burned up, others melted. There was an underlying lesson in letting go that has been part of my journey.

 

All of us have limitations slammed on us. Physical, mental, emotional, financial. It is not easy to see those limitations as an invitation. Yet maybe they are. 

 

One woman I read about stayed faithful to a husband after severe head trauma, finding new parameters for connection.

 

Friends in the widow/widower community have expressed to me the ways their marriages continue to grow.

 

When a friend's husband lost his job and suffered a pulmonary aneurism they found other ways to relate, driving to doctors, working out gently at the gym, down sizing their home. 

 

When a husband could only find work in another state, he and his wife jacked up their communication by electronic means.

 

There are aspects of marriage that I wanted, that did not show up. But when I extract my gaze from the empty space of what isn't I am able to see what is. 

 

 

 

Photo by Stephen Conroy

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