“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

— Paul Gauguin

What a strange thing for an artist to say!  He shuts his eyes in order to see.  We are taught from the time we are born to use our eyes to see the world around us.  Our parents hold up objects and say their names, and we acquire language by repeating the words they say.  We learn colors and shapes and relative size by looking at hundreds of things in our world and comparing them.  We know that yellow is not green, because we have seen many things called “yellow” and learned by seeing the things with that name just what yellow means.

Gauguin is famous for his paintings of the Tahitian people — paintings that capture the depth of colors and shapes and objects and people who were the first inhabitants of the island.  One can only imagine that an artist’s eye would have been captivated by the array of vibrant hues in an island paradise.  What a contrast to the city streets of Paris!  We are captivated by his bold use of colors; but we are equally captivated by the way his subjects come to life, although they are portrayed in two dimensions with paint on canvas.

Perhaps Gauguin looked at the world through the eyes of the artist — attending to the subtle change in color and light that to less-gifted eyes might not be obvious.  Perhaps, once he had taken it all in, he then closed his eyes and began to see what it was that he would portray in his art.  When we close our eyes, we then are able to see with the heart.  We pass all the images our eyes have delivered through the passion for life that lies within us; and by doing this, we see the essence of the image that allows it to come to life.

Few people are gifted with the ability to translate to canvas what their eyes deliver to the eyes of their heart so that others may experience what it is that they have seen.  This does not limit us from keeping our eyes open every day to the special wonders of life that greet us; and we have the opportunity, every single day, to close our eyes for a minute and see with our hearts what our eyes have brought into view.  It is a magical thing — seeing with the heart — and it is what allows us to see our place in a beautifully woven universe.  And as one heart sees and portrays its vision in painting or sculpture or music or words, another soul has the chance to look with its eyes and see with its heart what the artist has experienced.  It is then that we learn that we truly are connected — to the world, and to each other; but such wonderful things can only be seen when we shut our eyes and open our hearts.