The Rebirth
Artists have long yearned to capture visions of Beauty just as Coleridge imagines a dream of going to heaven and plucking a strange beautiful flower: “And what if / When you awoke / You had that flower in your hand / Ah, what then?” Such was the dream that inspired this intaglio. Walking on warm desert sand I see a red stone I then recognize as a sculpted hand of Shiva with seven fingers. Then I stroll down to a clear pool and wade in but begin to sink and stretch out on my back to wait. Women soon come to draw water before I return to where the sculpted hand lay. I see instead a delicate glass table elegantly appointed with flowers and a lovely meal of fruit, bread and wine. A chair is pulled back for me. Seated I look forward and behold an enchanting fair-skinned woman smiling graciously at me. Her serene penetrating gaze is like precious few I have ever seen.
