The Sunrise That Led To Monet's "Sunrise"
How Can We Inspire Greatness In Ourselves and Others?
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”
― Claude Monet
There’s this incredible, super slow, super boring BBC doc on the Impressionists.
It’s ‘good slow’ and ‘good boring’, you know what I mean?
I love slow documentaries.
This one is from the oughts, and it’s just perfectly fucking tedious. I love it so much.
It explains how the Impressionists were actually insanely radical for their time period. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, everyone was painting super realistic religious imagery. But Monet, Renoir and Pissarro were just like ‘here’s a blurry sunrise with a lady working the fields’.
They were rebels.
Even the name “Impressionists” was given to them as an insult, because an “impression” is like a rough draft. And they wore it like a badge of honor because they don’t give a fuck.
Anyway, the whole reason I’m making a commercial for this 2005 documentary on painters is because of an inspiring moment I can’t stop thinking about.
The film explains that Claude Monet was from Le Havre, a small seaside town in northern France. As a teenager, he would draw cartoons of prominent figures in the town to poke fun at them. Caricatures. And he was good. Obviously. Around this time, an older artist, Eugène Boudin, saw his cartoons and mentored him.
Boudin took the teenage Monet out into a meadow before dawn. They brought their easels. The young Monet sat awestruck as the sun gently emerged onto the horizon, pouring its light across the country landscape.
And that was it.
Monet later reflected that that morning was the birth of his reason for being.
"It was as if a veil was torn from my eyes; I had understood.
I grasped what painting could be."
—Claude Monet on Boudin’s early mentorship
Looking back, what an incredible thing for that mentor to help create someone as impactful in the history of art.
How can we find someone younger or newer in our space that has a real gift and offer them a revelatory moment about their own possibility?
CURRENTLY READING
Women of Power & Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time by Timothy Conway (Amazon)
This book is so mystically-incredible, so well-written, and so useful to me at this time, I will very likely publish more pieces related to its heroines.
Timothy Conway, a profound mystic in his own right, writes in the introduction:
Here are the tales of nine women—illustrious spiritual leaders, splendid jewels of humanity. They all share at least one facet in common: each woman risked everything, stepping beyond all limiting conventions to rely on that wondrous Power we call God or Goddess. Relying on Divine Love, each woman became absorbed in Divine Love. One with the Divine, they now serve as potent instruments of Divine Blessing. They can transform your life!
As you draw closer to these women, it will become apparent that an extraordinary Force of love, peace, freedom and bliss has indeed come alive at the core of their hearts, and has radiated outward as a Grace-full influence touching the lives of countless other beings. I have certainly been touched by these women, experiencing the mysterious and beautiful effects of their love on subtle realms of light. I gather their stories and teachings in hopes that you, too, might be enriched by the currents of Divine blessing force flowing through these holy ones.
You will not regret picking this one up. (It appears to be out of print so I recommend buying it used on Amazon or eBay.)
PODCAST APPEARANCES
Lastly, if you like what I’m cooking up and putting down and serving up, I’ve been very regular on both Instagram and TikTok recently. Gratefully I’m also going on at least a couple podcasts a month, which you can check out on my website (‘Appearances’ page in the nav menu).
Thank you and Namaste y’all!
Bob