Do you believe in the beauty of absence?

“Do you believe in the beauty of absence?”

This lyrical quote is from one of my favorite songs of all time by the brilliant songwriter Kevin Ray, and I couldn’t help but hear it again vibrate within my head and my heart when I saw these latest artworks by Yuumei.

These latest artworks conjured by Yummei, forged from the forever stuff just beyond the grasp of consciousness, again remind me that nothing, absolutely nothing, comes close to the healing power of art. Visual, auditory, sculpted, or with words, nothing can transcend the spiritual bliss of the “deep spiritual grok,” of the healing personal connection with a piece of artwork that washes over you and cleanses your soul. 

As artists, art appreciators, writers and composers across the spectrum of media, we can all acknowledge that the societally coerced “agreed” upon version of normalcy in this world can be challenging to say the least … but as artists and writers holding post as the connected sentinels of all things truly important and worthy, we must persevere. That is our accepted burden.  It is sometimes our greatest joy.

For each of us traversing the hard times, dark thoughts and perilous paths that fill our world at this moment in human history, these artworks by Yuumei serve as a reminder that it’s OK to dive deep, to plumb the darkest depths – so long as we never give in, so long as we never quit, so long as we remember that no matter how many days of rain, the sun will rise and finally shine through, and that we will once again rise…  We will always have each other, we will always have this, our community, and most importantly of all: we will always have our capacity to love.