Broken Words

I am pretty sure it is a faux pas to start off a blog entry with a quote from the Mexican artist whose life and work have inspired me, but I will take that chance:

Frida Kahlo once wrote in her journal, "Feet, what do I need them for when I have wings to fly?" These words are accompanied by cracked and broken feet of stone. For me, this image, and the words that accompany it, encapsulate the feeling of broken-ness that can permeate our lives and our art. I think this feeling of broken-ness goes by many names, and some might call it existential loneliness. This loneliness is discussed in the works of Rabbi Joseph B. Soliveitchik's classic work, "Lonely Man of Faith" - for it is from a place of alone-ness that spirituality emanates. Thus, in order to find God, Moses and Elijah each must journey by themselves into the wilderness, though the ways in which God appears to them are almost polar opposites: God appears to Moses through the burning bush, a show of might and miracles, while God appears to Elijah in "a still small voice", a voice that comes after a mighty wind, earthquake and fire have each passed by, but none of those mighty miracles contained the Divine Presence. (1 Kings:19).

I see art as a way of listening to and expressing the silent voice within us, whether it is through visual, musical, or literary works, as well as through other genres I am neglecting to mention, especially in our multi-media age, when new genres are being born every day.

So what is the purpose of this blog? I suppose it is a place for me to post some of my work, a way of ensuring I set aside time to write. Most of the works here will be works in progress, and I always appreciate (constructive) feedback.

As for the phrase "palavras quebradas", it is Portuguese, a language dear to my heart, since I am half-Brazilian, yet a language that my skills could use much improvement in. I found the beauty of the assonance of As too tempting to resist however, and had to put it in my blog's title.

I hope you will enjoy this blog, and I hope that I will enjoy writing for it. I will try to make future posts less tangentially rant-like.

PS: Link to the Amazon page for Frida Kahlo's journal, which has the image shown in this post.

Link to the Amazon page for "Lonely Man of Faith"