Nancy M. Williams, an award-winning writer and ardent amateur pianist, is the founding editor of the online magazine, Grand Piano Passion. The magazine is for all pianists and lovers of classical piano music. She used my painting, Divine Fragments & Diverse Changes to illustrate her article. The link between hearing and seeing is always fascinating. I usually think I would rather lose hearing than sight, but neither would be a willful choice.
I once did a month’s retreat in a friend’s empty house in a sparely populated area of Cape Breton. I didn’t talk to anyone except my own mind for a month. I heard no noises except what the natural world and I generated. When I drove home, a six hour trip in a new truck without a radio, the sound of the wheels on the road was overwhelming. I was shaking with sensory overload by the time I returned home. The first thing I did, as soon as I could after that, was purchase a radio for my car. Now it is automatically on when I start the motor.
I do listen to the radio when I am painting. I call it white noise, so I don’t listen to my mind as much. So I am more spontaneous in the working process. And I do love CBC radio! But, as well, I like silence in my home. There is a time for sound and a time for silence.