Dot to Dot

I’ve been thinking about Perspective, because I’ve been looking for some. We’ve been riding the ups and downs of buying (and selling) our home and I’ve been astonished by how much the process has clogged up my energy. And dismayed by my inability to stay in a lighter space.  

So, I’ve been trying – playing – well, sometimes forcing – myself to shift to a more generative place. What helped me most was to start thinking like an artist. Learning from the infinite dots of pointillism. Sound strange?  Keep reading, hopefully it will make sense. 

Maybe you know one of the most famous paintings from this offshoot of Impressionism, Sunday Afternoon in the Park by Seurat (the dot). This grand tableau is actually 1000’s of carefully chosen colorful dots. Masterful attention to contrast, tone, value, size, shape – individual details that combine to tell a story. Feeling the metaphor yet? The artist must toggle between the most careful attention to detail – the science of the painting – and the grander gesture. Like life.  

“Art is harmony. Harmony is the analogy of contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, conditioned by the dominant key, and under the influence of a particular light, in gay, calm, or sad combinations” 

Georges Seurat 

I decided to immerse myself in this idea and went and sat in the grass by the harbor over the weekend. Being.Very.Still. For an hour. And I played with the tension between the dots and the bigger picture. The canopy of trees – the details of the one leaf right above my head. The cacophony of bird song all around – the animated nest to my right with two blackbirds darting in and out carrying a small worm. The harbor filled with boats – the tiny ripple of one small wave by the shore.  

And this exercise in observation talked to me; teaching me. The lesson to me was that both parts matter. The details AND the long view. The whole of the experience is the experience – and is the opportunity. The individual dots with their varied intensity, harmony, and dissonance create the bigger, beautiful picture. And they are interdependent.

From the wider lens of perspective, I can see the value in the details and hold the whole experience lighter knowing it is part of a bigger picture. In real terms this can mean being less critical of myself along the way, getting more comfortable with less control, and walking courageously through the unknowns. Moving forward with a clear head AND also a smile on my face.  

When next I write, the details of my real estate transactions will be in the rear view mirror. Small dots on my bigger canvas. And I’ll quite literally have a new point of view from the 16th floor!  

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

Vincent van Gogh