Lane von Herzen: A Shining Countenance

My Third Novel's Conclusion, My Heartbreak

My heart begins to break when I think about completing this particular book -- because this narrative has sustained me like no other story I've known. It's both more personal and more universal than my other works. But beyond memory and archetype, it's a cri-de-coeur about needing to become the person one is destined to be. And in the writing, I have met my own life's work, my own fated journey -- having the sense all the while that the pages are suffused with a resonance, an energy, an electrified field that defies explanation. Writers hope and pray to be overtaken by a work in this way -- to be conscripted into passionate service of a profound story. To experience it even once in a lifetime seems a great privilege. I still have several months before this novel is complete, and this constitutes my reprieve. Because I'm not ready for the beauty to end.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

A Shining Countenance

This transcendent portrait comes to us from award-winning artist Miguel Martinez. With this work, he captures a face of lambent sympathy, of exquisite wisdom. Anna de la Senda would surely regard the world through such a shining countenance as this. Bravissimo. (Miguel Martinez is represented through the Michael McCormick Gallery.)