This art featured in my memoir, Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness is included as a moment of serenity between chapters and does not necessarily have any literal connection to the story.
Incandescence: Rising Above Darkness Excerpt Chapter #42 Part I. Raining In The Monastery
Outside the window, silver olive trees follow the roll of the Italian hills. An aura of salmon pink clouds glows at the mountain’s edge. Brilliant white snow dusts the highest peaks. Terra-cotta villas dot the landscape. I am sitting on an enormous bed in this thousand-year-old carved stone monastery as the golden dusk is fading while darkness wraps me in cool stars.
No longer lured out the window, I am drawn into my own invisible interior. I have come here to write without distractions. As I begin, a sense of awesome responsibility comes over me. The weight of wondering, what do I have to say, is so heavy. Sharing my life without sensationalizing my struggle is daunting. I feel angry at my imaginary audience wanting to hear the difficult things I have been through. Then I realize the act of sharing isn’t for others—but an act of love toward myself. If I do not tell my story, how will I ever truly know myself? I feel sharing my truth can transform my pain into purpose, helping me by helping others. Giving is also receiving.
When Walter Landor, the founder of an international design firm, was in the hospital, he asked to see my art. I brought my portfolio and showed him one piece at a time. As he looked at each one slowly and carefully, he said, “There is a book here. You should tell stories looking at your own art.”
So I am including my art in this book in honor of him. Each piece tells a different silent story. His last words to me as I was leaving the hospital that evening were, “Don’t put anything off!”
Now I am no longer thinking about whether it is a curse or a blessing to have an interesting life full of challenges. It is not what I have been given that makes me who I am; it is what I do with what I have been given that defines me. It is not good or bad to have lived these things, but sharing it to know myself better and help others is good.
Clare Cooley
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