No one has come up with a better way to describe what happens during the in-between state of a caterpillar’s transformation (into a butterfly) than “goo.” In this inexplicable moment in nature, an insect completely loses its form and miraculously emerges as something else. I’ve been talking with my son a lot about what that feels like as we, too, can sometimes (if we’re lucky) be goo. Being raised in a family that checks the boxes and takes the linear path, then choosing to learn, do, and be more can allow a complete metamorphosis.
Rodney McMillian makes landscape paintings on formerly used bedsheets. He talks about the activities that have potentially occurred on those sheets—some transcendent, others transgressive—and compares them to things that have happened on the land on which he is painting. Going from one place to another often involves struggle and pain, but it also frequently involves quiet contemplation and stillness—of not just the body but also the mind. Nature, while instilling this sense of stillness, is always evolving, just like us.
