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Rothko on the train

Once again as predetermined the daylight has disappeared from view. All the references points of the day have disappeared, it is nothing new it. The deserts are still there as are the mountains this action of diserpierience is not recorded on the news. The clouds still do their lazy work unseen by me. All the signs and information that help frame our daily lives are now hidden by the darkness. The darkness in itself is not bad it is what is carried out underneath its cover and that we are foolish to believe God is blind in the night desert.
This is Rothko’s trick and I use the word trick in a positive fashion.
When my wife and I went to Amsterdam to visit some of the museums there I used the word trick for the first time. I felt that a small number of great artists discovered a trick with their profession and used it, perhaps the use of light. Others artists would then follow mimicking the trick within these great masterpieces. I digress to demonstrate my ignorance and foolishness suggest this to my wife.
Rothkos; trick is to remove everything from your view, that is why he wants us so close to his work. Like my view of the dark desert tonight Rothko demands we encounter nothing but his work or experience as called them. Staring into Rothko’s dark works is risky
In some ways he is a prophet like figure calling us to deconstruct what we have in order to rediscover or be discovered by the true substance, God.
Rothko acts like a god like figure who like Yahweh has the power to remove the day and hide all those so restricting reference points. Who would not want to slap the face of those endless overweight cherubs that only give God a bad name.
As I look out the window of the dining car charging through to the invisible desert in the reflection of the glass I can see me and my fellow passengers. If Rothko’s work were glazed we would always be seeing ourselves and your neighbours in his work. As Richard Rohr say’s ‘we are not that important’ (although we believe we are).
My desert experience in india

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