The Feminine and Masculine Balanced and Beautiful

Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want with
our whole lives, the touch of

spirit on the body. Seawater
begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling! At

night, I open the window and ask
the moon to come and press its

face against mine. Breathe into
me. Close the language- door and

open the love window. The moon
won't use the door, only the window.

From Soul of Rumi
by Coleman Barks

What is it about the kiss that lets the male and female energy mix and become one. This is our way of promoting our species so it is ultimate sacred act. Yet this sort of kiss on the head does show a whole different kind of tenderness. Something different than the erotic union of male and female. Since this beautiful woman is in a cemetary it is death that has slipped away from her body. Her soul is gone, yet this art conveys such beauty. It is a dynamic medium that lifts a soul far beyond the everydayness that it might be considered ecstasy. Maybe it is simply pointing out how we should be tender with ourselves during death. Maybe it is a love affair that is over on Earth but will last eternity in their souls and heaven. The way the man is holding the woman on his own lap is what a mother does to her child when they are hurt. There is no savage negligence in his posture- it is pure. If you can look at this image for a long time or you are drawn to it then it speaks to you. It speaks to a place that cannot be named and part of you that only understands tenderness no matter how deeply hidden you may hold this place. If we don't have art to bring forth the hidden or the mystery then we are no different than our neighbors in the animal kindom that are consumed by survival. Art lifts us beyond the survival mode into a place of compassion and tenderness.

When Art Embraces the Feminine Beauty

As I experienced the artwork in Cimitero di Staglieno, Genoa Italy, I was in bliss. Ironically death was not the issue. The artist did not sign his or her name either. What was left was a stone medium that conveyed the feminine beauty like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was the first time in my life that saw the female body as a work of art. I knew it instinctively but to see it outside in the world was overwhelming. The women portrayed were small, large, traditional, nude and everything else in between. No shape of a woman was left out. It was not your Vogue models in stone. The artists used real women to capture the essence of humanity and also to honor the dead.