Truth in a Mask: Conclusion

Production of Flight of the Mind continues to soar and we will treat our readers to another excerpt later this week. In the meantime, exciting news has come from the Denver Hospice Mask Project. 

Every two years, the Denver Hospice solicits masks designed by celebrities, authors, artists, musicians and local personalities. Read about this year's fascinating array of masks here.  In the spring, the masks are auctioned off online and in Denver. All the money goes to the hospice to make compassionate care-taking accessible to families whose loved ones are nearing death. 

Marcus' mask, an interpretive rendition of the painting, How Time Flies, brought in a good amount to go towards helping make end-of-life care and comfort a reality for many people. So many of the masks were astonishing, and the whole endeavor shows a bright and hopeful face, a testament to what can happen when creative people come together for a cause. Visit the Mask Project site to see a showcase of these faces, all true and beautiful.

Read about Marcus' mask in our entry, The Mask Revealed. For curious minds, who want to see the process of creation, read our post, Beauty and Truth in a Mask.   

Stay tuned and subscribe to this blog for more (and more frequent as the completion nears) updates and excerpts of the book, Flight of the Mind: An Artist's Journey through Paralysis. 

Magical realism

Imagine: you are walking along the beach. In a tidal pool reflecting the day's last light, you discover beautiful shells, larger than any you've encountered before. The wind dies; the only sound is the echo of the ocean from the shells, which sounds like your own heartbeat, or could that be the flapping of wings? 

Nature performs magical feats by the millions every minute. But, busy with our private concerns and human interests, we often fail to notice nature's miracles . . . until someone shows us the world anew and wakes us up to the extraordinary quality of ordinary time.

Marcus is an artist who wakes us up. To borrow from literary terms, Marcus’ paintings, provocative and miraculous, are an instance of magical realism. He crafts scenes that defy the rules of the real world and in doing so, reveals a truth about this world we call home, and take for granted.  We willingly follow his lead, suspending disbelief because he creates a reality we only need to be shown to believe in.

"For the hard of hearing you shout, and for the near-blind you draw in large and startling figures," says Flannery O'Connor, a writer whose style anticipated the power of magical realism.

Realistic, accurately rendered elements in fanciful, impossible scenes evoke strong feelings.  Through his use of mystery and metaphor, mediating between reality and imagination, Marcus opens up a world and invites us along on an epic journey.

The invitation is the same invitation  issued by Nature, day after day, with her miracles. This winter, wake up to the world revealed anew.  The Geminid meteor shower tonight and the Christmas Bird Count are both  good ways to jump-start your belief in miracles and join Marcus on a journey which promises to be both very magical and very real.