Study of a Rose blossom, photograph by Martin Watson

A Bit of Myself…sharing the secrets of my soul.

I must admit that I have had a bit of a difficult time getting my thoughts down on paper for this post.  I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn’t seem to formulate the words. Thinking back on things that’d read or seen that would perhaps inspire me, I came across this excerpt from the classic story “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde:

Basil Hallward:  “every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter.  The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion.  It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself.  The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.”

When I first read this passage, I must say that I had to reread it a couple of times and sort of catch my breath. Continue reading →