TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 276: Feel Flows

FEEL FLOWS By Tom Wills. Watercolor, December 2014.

"Feel Flows" is a title that I stole from The Beach Boys. It's a dreamy, trippy song full of harmonies and a beat suggested by pulsing keyboards, rather than drums. Carl Wilson (not Brian) and Jack Rieley wrote it for the "Surf's Up" album (1971) and it makes use of reverse echo vocals. Carl is the only Beach Boy on it and plays everything.
The song, like this painting, is a solo act. It is very unlike any of the rest.

Click the link to play the song as you read about this painting.

"Feel Flows"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp_8GKcNvdQ

Unfolding enveloping missiles of soul
Recall senses sadly
Mirage like soft blue like lanterns below
To light the way gladly
Whether whistling heaven's clouds disappear
Where the wind withers memory
Whether whiteness whisks soft shadows away
Feel flows (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)

A hand on the watercolor wash. But I deemed this too harsh.

One morning in December, I decided to start throwing watercolors onto the paper and took to smearing them around. Paint goblets soaked a t-shirt, the drawing table and the floor.
Later, for no real reason, I painted onto my grandson's palm and pressed it down, adding mine the next day. I also drew a human heart in the background.
Eventually I dribbled the paints and blew on them to make them run (making myself light-headed).

Starting to reach, not yet connected.

Unbending never ending tablets of time
Record all the yearning
Unfearing all appearing message divine
Eases the burning
Whether willing witness waits at my mind
Whether hope dampens memory
Whether wondrous will stands tall at my side
Feel flows (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)

India ink makes the connections.

You might recall the red and blue from science books: Arteries and veins, carrying either oxygen-rich or oxygen-depleted blood through the body and to the heart and lungs in an unending cycle.
Look at your own hands: You can clearly see both.
The heart is made of India ink applied with a dip pen. It is permanent. The colors may fade but the heart will not.

Impressions on a heart.

Encasing all embracing wreath of repose
Engulfs all the senses
Imposing, unclosing thoughts that compose
Retire the fences
Whether wholly heartened life fades away
Whether harps heal the memory
Whether wholly heartened life fades away
Whether wondrous will stands tall at my side
Whether whiteness whisks soft shadows away
Feel goes (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel flows (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feelings to grow (White hot glistening shadowy flows)

Published by
WILOJARSTON PUBLISHING

Heavy frame of porcelain cast onto wood, copper trim and a recessed mat.

Did the heart burst from joy or anguish? On some days, both.

With the growth of my art venture being the only exception, 2014 was not a good year for me personally.
There was a marriage of young people that I really wanted to happen, and already there is a divorce.
I lost a few friends, both physically and emotionally. Some closed the door to me, some left the planet.

All of my layers just ache.

You cannot, I have finally learned, force matters of the heart.

New discoveries.

Nor can I expect everyone to like the same thing.
My family hates this painting. It's weird, creepy and ugly, they say.
I'll admit that it's simple and amateurish. But it has meaning to me, at least.
In the end I think it is more happy than morbid.
In fact, I find it strangely beautiful. Each time I look at it there is some new discovery.
Here is my interpretation of the image, and you are free and encouraged to have your own:

Automatic.

The two hands, the older and more tired blue and the young and vibrant red, represent generations and time.
The yellow represents energy, which dissipates.
The arteries and veins connecting both hands to the heart represent the passage of life: My blood flows through my daughter's body and, so, through my grandson's.
But I don't believe that it dilutes. I believe that it adds colors and qualities along the way, and that's what the rainbow drippings from the heart and hands represent.
A pulse is a mysterious and wondrous thing that is automatic.
Feel flows. We don't even have to think about it.