A Deer and A Dear

In The Little Room of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art is a wild-eyed deer. Its alert stance and direct gaze have never struck me as they did when I last visited the museum. I was picking up some art that I had loaned, packed up by Mattie who lovingly cares for my father's art on a daily basis, when I was suddenly moved to photograph Mattie in "the little room". She was agreeable, and we walked together into that magical space.

The little room was also a secret room in the latter years of my father's life. Kept padlocked until his death, when my mother took courage and unlocked the door to daddy's most personal and spiritual masterpiece. This is my opinion, but I am sure other's have felt that something beyond understanding is radiating from those walls to silence and affect them deeply. 

This room was moved from the side of Walter Anderson's cottage at Shearwater in 1991. A traumatic event for the family, but done with the understanding that it would be better cared for, and that without the little room to represent the artist's private art, the museum would be incomplete. I wept the first time I entered the room in its new location.

But on this day in 2017, I was detached enough to focus on dear Mattie and the glowing wall where she chose to stand. At first she seemed as alert as the deer, her eyes as large and wild-eyed. Soon, she relaxed, and I love this compassionate gaze that reminds me to soften my own gaze as I look upon my father's magical realm.