I visited the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida last week. It has more than 2000 pieces of art by Dali and represents the largest such collection outside of Spain. My host was a dear friend and CPM alum who arranged a tour with a private guide.
I knew little about Dali before my visit. I still know little, but it is a little more than I knew before. What amazed me is the skill with which Dali interposed pictures within pictures so that you are left wondering what you are seeing.
The Hallucinogenic Toreador is a great example. It is a monumental painting measuring about 13’ by 10’ and is set in a bullfighting arena. There are multiple pictures of Venus de Milo and what looks like a sheet studded with semi-precious stones is actually the head of a vanquished bull.
Gala, Dali’s wife and muse, disliked bullfighting and is shown looking down somberly from the top left of the picture. She seems to be gazing at the many renderings of Venus de Milo.
Squint a bit and turn sideways and, all of a sudden, each Venus de Milo depiction morphs into a nubile, muscled toreador.
So, who – or what – was Gala contemplating?
Think of this as a metaphor for life itself.
Stuff happens in unexpected ways and, as Steve Jobs noted in his famous speech at Stanford, you can only connect the dots looking backward.
When Jobs quit Reed College because he did not want to burden his parents with the high tuition, he hung around for a while crashing with friends. Freed from academic requirements, he audited courses he was interested in. One of these courses was Chinese calligraphy. Years later what he learned there showed up in the Macintosh computer with innovations like proportional spacing and font architecture.
Think of your life. The intolerable situation you are facing may be the catalyst for some unknown and unforeseeable and totally wonderful outcome.
You just have to squint and look sideways as you would at a Dali masterpiece.
Peace!
