The Walker – Soria, Spain

The Walker, Soria – Oil/canvas – 21 x 31 inches

Spaces: In the space between the buildings, there were bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms, a home on each floor, where families used to live.

Then there’s the space between the man and the dog, even though their separate shadows have merged into one.

Also, there are several meters of space between the artist and the street scene he painted, but just as fascinating, there’s a space of time between now and when he originally created the painting — more than thirty-five years ago.
For the past few weeks, the spaces between people in Soria and everywhere else in Spain has widened. The city, like the rest of the country, is under strict quarantine while the virus sweeps through the streets, gathering its victims. As of today, at the end of the first week in April, 2020, more than 120,000 Spaniards have been infected and more than 11,000 have lost their lives. This in a country 1/20th the size of the United States.

The man and the dog no longer walk the streets of Soria. The families who used to live in the empty space between the buildings are probably not with us either. “Eventually,” my friend Maya tells me from Madrid, “the spaces between all of us alive on earth and all those buried beneath it will not exist. Every one of us, everywhere, will join them. Only not now, we hope. Not soon. But eventually…”

#art #artistsoninstagram #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #artforsale #realisticart #fineart #visualpoetry #oilpainting #artoftheday #modernart #artofvisuals #kunst #pintura

More images appear on my website: johnmichaelkeating.com Source: https://instagr.am/p/B-iW_3wjSWL/

2 thoughts to “The Walker – Soria, Spain”

  1. This picture with your comments conjures up the Harpies on our shoulders.
    We no longer walk in our world as before.
    However, I do regularly walk my dog, Shonko, in the surrounding forest; he chases sticks I throw; Shonko brings them back for me to throw again. If I don’t throw the stick again, I get a profound look that it’s me with the problem. Shonko drops the stick at my feet again with that look of “what’s your problem” until I throw it again.
    This Coronavirus Harpy keeps dropping the potential death stick at my feet.
    May we all be survivors in this moment…not victims.
    Be Safe; Be Well!

  2. A wonderful contemplative reflection on time, space, life, death. And those spaces again. I learn from your paintings and the posts associated with them to look and to see. I think I still need a lot of guidance, but this post is instructive. Look and see what at first seems not to be there.

Leave a Reply to Richard Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 512 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.