Thoughts & Insights

Immediate and Unimpeded …

… was the heading of an article in the special edition of we_magazine which was showcased in the last blog post.

I had the occasion to learn just what uninhibited directness can mean some two years ago when I was fortunate enough to be there when a group of small children encountered one of OUBEYs paintings. I was immensely struck by the uninhibited sense of childish curiosity, the capacity for astonishment and the sense of wonder they brought to the painting, the discoveries they made in it and the views they expressed. The encounter was filmed on video and can be seen online.

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All of us have the ability to tap into the sense of wonder to rediscover the world anew. Children live out such a sense in a completely unimpeded, uninhibited way. It’s a very clever trick on the part of nature because if they didn’t they would never learn anything.

We know that such a sense of wonder disappears in many people as they grow into adults but we have no idea where it disappears to. Possibly it never disappears entirely but slips deep down into the dark regions of our slumbering talents.

Those grown-ups who still have the ability to re-invoke the wondering gaze of the child they once were are indeed fortunate people. I would say that the life-long ability to ask questions from a position of not-knowing, from a position of wonderment, – and thus the ability to step out of the shadows thrown by decades of accumulated experience and knowledge gathering – is an essential part of happiness. To move out of these shadows and constantly rediscover the world and yourself afresh. This was a part of happiness that was dear to OUBEY and that he would never part with. It’s there in many of his paintings. And in the one the children encountered too.

The encounter video can be seen here.

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