she had a mind of her own,
and she painted like nobody else.”
~ opening words from the trailer of the Zeitgeist Films
“Beyond the Visible: Hilma of Klint.”
The jigsaw puzzle she had borrowed from the public library featured an image done by the artist Hilma of Klint, born in Sweden in 1862. Hilma was both an artist and a mystic. Her paintings are considered among the first major abstract works in Western art history. Hilma died in 1944.
Leafing through the April/May 2025 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine she was surprised and delighted to see an article featuring Hilma of Klint! What are the odds of that??? She was awestruck to be seeing the article on the very day she was doing the puzzle of the Hilma piece….
She does not subscribe to the Smithsonian magazine but a friend she seldom sees had sent this edition to her by mail because the cover story is about the Buddha and the friend said she didn’t know anyone else interested in the Buddha.
The magazine arrived many days earlier, but as she had time to do a puzzle that day she thought she best also look at the free magazines which had collected. Among the pile was the Smithsonian. She felt she should check out the story of the Buddha and thank her friend for sending it.
And there was Hilma waiting for her!
She writes, “It was so out of my control. It was a great teaching for me that I do not have to control everything. TRUST Life. Things will unfold without your pushing them along.”
Her sense of wonder amplified as she looked again at a drawing she herself had done during the pandemic. Perhaps she, too, was both an artist and a mystic. The urge to draw circles highlighting energy or essence that might otherwise be missed was palpable as she saw deeper meaning in her persistent inner calling to “Pick up the brushes….”
