Lane von Herzen: Pale Revelation

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.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Pale Revelation

Something iconic is happening within this photograph -- a mystery, a revelation, a secret about to be told. What does this young woman know that we don't? Does she know the narrative of beauty in which she is taking part? Is she readying herself for a wedding, a waltz, a lover, a debut? Whatever the answers, we lean in to decipher them. With a beauty bordering on the sacred, this interpretation of Mariela exists as a timeless testament to a woman's spirit -- her translucent hopes, her fragile preparations, her fate.

Mariela wore white like the template of her soul.

What a privilege to have these words translated into this shining image.

The artist, Lina Brazauskaite, lives in Lithuania.