This series of 12″x12″ paintings is a contemplation of ,and reaction to, Paul Simon’s 2023 music album and meditation on life, “Seven Psalms.” I have been deeply affected by this work and engaged in this painting project over the last two years to find a visual response and my own thinking about life and where I am now.
Flow is a central concept in music. Like water in a river, events and the actions of our lives are bigger than us and carry more power. There is grace in this realization, the river carries on despite so much. When I heard this lyric, I was reminded of the River Ota. When Hiroshima was destroyed by the Atomic Bomb in WW2, the Seven Streams of the River Ota survived, the water continued to flow despite utter destruction. Nature is bigger than us, it will carry on. – Clifton Taylor