Behind the Scenes content

I’m curious what you take away about my personality from this piece I posted on Linked In.

Thanks!

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Have you ever experienced something both magnificent and incomplete?
Two weeks ago I spent a week in Florence, Italy, the birthplace of Renaissance art and architecture. I don’t know about you, but this is my favorite kind of vacation – taking in another culture, especially its art. It both refreshes and inspires my soul.

No visit to Florence is complete without experiencing the magnificence of Michelangelo’s David at the Galeria dell’Accademia di Firenze in all its glory. David stands (all 17 feet of him) in perfect repose as a perfect specimen of a perfected humanity. No matter how many times you’ve seen the statue in photos, being in David’s presence really does take your breath away. It’s very strange how I feel both very small and very large at the same time.

In the hallway leading up to the David sit several other sculptures by Michelangelo, including four “slave” or “prisoner” sculptures that stand incomplete. Each figure stands in a different stage of incompletion, and each twists and turns in dynamic tension. There is struggle here. There is roughness. The chisel strokes are clearly visible. Whole sections of the figures lie concealed within the marble, while others have taken clear form. The dramatic idea of each figure is clearly present, but partially hidden.

I love these figures so much. I love the rawness, the ragged edges, the sense of tension and breaking free from the constraints of the stone. For me these incomplete figures speak of emergence. A form within the stone passionately longs to set itself free, to realize itself. And that for me is truer than David’s static perfection. (Or at least reveals something different about our common humanity.)

So often we find ourselves fixated on some idea of perfection. And we fail to acknowledge the messy beauty of the struggle to emerge. What beautiful possibilities are striving to emerge for you? Celebrate rawness and chisel marks. That’s the game of being human.

Own your badassity.

Dan