Sandra Cohn
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Veiled Perception   
Abstract  52 x 39     
Latex paint on roofing paper mounted on masonite box frame

Picture
Albert Einstein said "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
For most of us, the veils of our perception make invisible to us our deepest truths.This painting is a call to look further, deeper; to persistently peer behind the veils. 
Rumi's invitation- "Work in the invisible world as least as hard as you do in the visible."  




stillpoint 1
25 x 33   
Abstract figurative on cold press watercolor paper, acrylic and latex paint, acrylic medium and collage mounted on recycled steel     

Picture

The stillpoint is the place within us where we find ourselves present and engaged, most often in a state of awe, whole and holy. 
In the poem At the Still Point, T.S. Elliot writes:
               
"At the still point, there the dance is,
                Except for the point, the still point,
                There would be no dance,
                And there is only the dance."




When Souls Touch
41 x 29  
Abstract, latex paint and collage on roofing paper mounted on masonite box frame

Picture
 When Souls Touch, the passion of love upturns our hearts.

                                          “When souls touch
                                                   intimately
                                           the unseen applauds.
                                              It is the echo of 
                                                   the divine
                                              against our limbs 
                                          that causes all desire.” 
                                                                               -Hafiz




Becoming Light 
35 x 27  
Abstract painting on cold press watercolor paper, latex paint and medium.  Framed.

Picture
As we rise to the higher regions of this painting we escape the concreteness of our stories and embrace the flooding beauty of the Light. 
"For no reason
I start skipping like a child.
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.

Is it true that our destiny
Is to turn into Light
Itself?"
-Hafiz


Flying-click on main painting to turn
39x36 
Abstract figurative painting on roofing paper using latex paint, rose petals from my garden and burlap mounted on masonite box. 
This painting is mounted to move, creating new view points at every turn. 

I was asked to create a self portrait, what seemed to me a daunting task. In preparation for it, I went into silence and saw over and over again an image of myself flying above the earth and dropping rose petals from my hands. It was spring and my garden was in bloom, roses in profusion, everywhere. And so I began to paint, plucking the most beautiful petals from my garden and using them in the painting. As I worked I felt the sudden need to turn the painting upside down and at once saw another truth emerging, a portrait of me coming up for air. On it’s side, I was dancing. And so it became the turning painting. From Rumi, 

                                                  "This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, 
                                                    to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. 
                                                    First to let go of life. 
                                                    Finally to step without feet."
                                                                              

Hanging on to What We Love, At the Lake 
58 x 40 x 2   Mounted       
Latex  paint, chalk, acrylics on roofing paper and salvaged rusted 'ladder' mounted on painting  

Picture
   This painting, that combines a metal ladder, came to being out of a great love for nature. Those early morning canoe or rowboat rides across a still and beautiful lake bring us into the present like no other. How to hold such beauty in our hearts? The ladder represents a sense of hanging on to what we love, to what is lovely...deep within. 

                                     At the Lake
                               excerpt by Mary Oliver

                                      This is, I think,
                                   what holiness is:
                                   the natural world,
                          where every moment is full 
                        of the passion to keep moving.

                                 I’ve knelt there,
                                and so have you,
                                   hanging on
                                 to what you love, 
                                 to what is lovely.

Nine Gradations of Light
Acrylic paint on canvas, mixed media
60" wide by 48" high
Picture
Nine Gradations of Light is an homage to Marin poet laureateJoseph Zaccardi. His poem, The Nine Gradations of Light from his book by the same name, inspired this painting. Excerpt from poet follows:

"Firstly brightness,
which is given as ten to the power of ten.
and is given to mean miracles and snow blindness.
It tears at the eyes; it carries water into the thinness
between air and vacuum.

and is the closest thing to God, and is of itself in three parts."

Meditation
Canvas, acrylic paint, embedded collage
36" high by 24" wide
Picture

“Just as the ocean has waves or the sun has rays, so the minds’s own radiance.” 
                                                                                                      -S. Rinpoche

It's Tangled Out There
Assemblage collage, paint pastels mounted on carved wood with ‘book’ ends- 35”x12” 

Tangled 
Tangled
It’s tangled out 
there
the world does not 
remain 
steady or 
stationary 
try as we might 
to 
get it 
to do so
as 
hot air 
settles 
heavy
on a 
New York
day
what we want 
is
a moment of 
calm
when we can 
pause
time 
like a viral
movie. 
Pause.
get up 
move around it,
perhaps 
even
in a moment 
of 
objectivity,
understand.

We are 
instead 
disheveled 
tousled 
thrown 
about 
in a sort of 
delirious 
frenzy
and yet 
at the same 
time as all of 
that, 
the sun is 
shining
in 
perfect 
simplicity.

It’s 
all unknown
hard as we try 
with all our 
theories and 
words and 
hopes and 
dreams 
It remains 
what it has always been
for 
generations and 
generations, 
a 
wounded and 
brilliantly lit 
mystery.
-SandraCohn
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