Joan Mitchell and the Divinity of Sight

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Sometime in April, we discussed sight in Hinduism, specifically, darsan. Diane Eck’s book, Darsan, helped us understand the divine image in India, how sight embodies the holy experience. 

Although I learned that we have the potential to smell infinite scents, 70% of our body’s sensory receptors are in our eyes. I think sight is so overwhelming that it acts as the bridge to connect all of our sensations together, to understand scent comes from objects and instruments produce sound. Being able to observe the world is the way we begin to understand. 

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of sight in our everyday lives, I am able to type this reflection by seeing my words. How is sight used in ritual? I think sight is the primary sense used in orienting ourselves in a setting. You use your sight to determine what is reality and what is illusion. In this sense, it can be difficult in Western contexts to know when you’ve “found God” in a visual sense, as well as an embodiment since so much of Western religion is theological rather “sensational.” People do not worship God through a picture of him in America. In Hinduism, people “see the divine” through the image of various gods. I think that this grounds the believer, that looking upon an image of God is both comforting as it is exhilarating. 

I’m passionate about art, and when I go into a museum, and gaze at a wonderful piece, I can lose myself in the image. I can observe the colors and how they make me feel, how the texture of the painting is attractive, the composition. One of my favorite paintings of all time is at the RISD Museum in Providence. It is by Joan Mitchell, an abstract expressionist working in New York in the 20th century.

Joan Mitchell, Mooring (1971)



What do I love about this painting? I love that I don't understand it. I can't deconstruct the forms and imagine it an imitation of reality. I can't recognize what the forms could possibly be. Because I can't place the image in the context of my every day life, I have to appreciate it for what it is: abstract. When a person looks at the sky, they can try to find shapes in the clouds, or they can embrace their beauty. I embrace the abstract image because the colors put me at ease. Mitchell painted deliberately to spread color around the canvas, leaving some sections opaque and others to blend delicately with each other. I admire that she didn't mix purple and orange because doing so would have made an uncomfortable color.

The last time I saw this painting in person was a month ago. The scale of this work allows me to put myself in a trance and let my mind go blank from gazing at the painting. I heard a student call this work "something you can get at a garage sale," and I laugh thinking that someone could miss something so beautiful. The beauty of art is all the hard work and intention in creating a piece, and having it look so unrefined that the viewer continually looks to find what it means. The beauty in art is to allow us to look and be consumed with the image.

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