Tesfaye Urgessa b. 1983
Chasing After the Wind I, 2020
Oil on canvas
150 x 150 cm
Copyright The Artist
The idea 'chasing after the wind' or 'chasing the wind' came to me as a sort of mix of what Steve Jobs and Eckhart Tolle said about lifwe. I also...
The idea 'chasing after the wind' or 'chasing the wind' came to me as a sort of mix of what Steve Jobs and Eckhart Tolle said about lifwe. I also took the words of King Solomon to wrap it up.
Steve Jobs believed that the thought of death can be the source of wisdom, so to say. To remind oneself of death brings enormous awareness to one's life, differentiating between important and junks throughout one’s life.
In 2005 he said to the graduating class of Stanford University that ''...for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" adding ''death is very likely the single best invention of life''.
At the same time Eckhart Tolle wrote in his book 'the new earth as follows: ''As I was walking with a friend through a beautiful nature reserve near Malibu in California, we came upon the ruins of what had been once a country house, destroyed by a fire several decades ago. As we approached the property, long overgrown with trees and all kinds of magnificent plants, there was a sign by the side of the trail put there by the park authorities. I read "DANGER, ALL STRUCTURES ARE UNSTABLE." I said to my friend; "That's a profound sutra." As we stood there in awe. Once you realize and accept that all structures (forms) are unstable, even the seemingly solid material ones, peace arises within you. This is because the recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to the dimension of the formless within yourself.’'
Everybody heard stories of people in their deathbeds whose clarity suddenly came upon them. But the question is: Do we have to wait till that day or can we get the same clarity earlier in our life? I have a few moments where I had the kind of experience where suddenly I realized what is really important and what is not: very, very few moments.
in my painting, I tried to create a sense of surrender that expressing the phrase 'I shall too, pass', it is probably easy to see there is a sense of spirituality in the composition, which I borrowed from the style early Italian paintings were done between the 13th and 15th centuries. At the same time, there are modern elements the book which I symbolize as Regulations, Lows and rules and sometimes also as manuscripts and scriptures we use to govern our life and kind of draw our sense meaning for our existence, like someone who is made to believe a soldier, believes his purpose is to protect and kill.
King Solomon used his 'wisdom' and power as king to collect all that he wanted, became what he thought he needed to become but the greatest realization he had was that all things are impermanent including his existence so he wrote, all endeavor he had made was like ''chasing after the wind’'. (Ecclesiastes 1:14)
Steve Jobs believed that the thought of death can be the source of wisdom, so to say. To remind oneself of death brings enormous awareness to one's life, differentiating between important and junks throughout one’s life.
In 2005 he said to the graduating class of Stanford University that ''...for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" adding ''death is very likely the single best invention of life''.
At the same time Eckhart Tolle wrote in his book 'the new earth as follows: ''As I was walking with a friend through a beautiful nature reserve near Malibu in California, we came upon the ruins of what had been once a country house, destroyed by a fire several decades ago. As we approached the property, long overgrown with trees and all kinds of magnificent plants, there was a sign by the side of the trail put there by the park authorities. I read "DANGER, ALL STRUCTURES ARE UNSTABLE." I said to my friend; "That's a profound sutra." As we stood there in awe. Once you realize and accept that all structures (forms) are unstable, even the seemingly solid material ones, peace arises within you. This is because the recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to the dimension of the formless within yourself.’'
Everybody heard stories of people in their deathbeds whose clarity suddenly came upon them. But the question is: Do we have to wait till that day or can we get the same clarity earlier in our life? I have a few moments where I had the kind of experience where suddenly I realized what is really important and what is not: very, very few moments.
in my painting, I tried to create a sense of surrender that expressing the phrase 'I shall too, pass', it is probably easy to see there is a sense of spirituality in the composition, which I borrowed from the style early Italian paintings were done between the 13th and 15th centuries. At the same time, there are modern elements the book which I symbolize as Regulations, Lows and rules and sometimes also as manuscripts and scriptures we use to govern our life and kind of draw our sense meaning for our existence, like someone who is made to believe a soldier, believes his purpose is to protect and kill.
King Solomon used his 'wisdom' and power as king to collect all that he wanted, became what he thought he needed to become but the greatest realization he had was that all things are impermanent including his existence so he wrote, all endeavor he had made was like ''chasing after the wind’'. (Ecclesiastes 1:14)