The beauty of blurred light

“I tell you it has taken me all my life

to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,

to soften and blur and finally banish

the edges you regret I don’t see”

This extract comes from a poem by Lisel Mueller titled, Monet Refuses the Operation. You can read the full poem here. Mueller imagines that the reason Monet initially refused cataract surgery was because he preferred the way the world looked through blurry lenses.

I appreciate the possibility Meuller offers - that my vision-impairment could be viewed as a lens with it’s own unique beauty. I must say, I do love how my blurry vision diffuses light so that a halo is created around the light source, making it appear even bigger and more beautiful in the darkness - and especially so on a misty night. It reminds me of Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. I’ve seen some very impressive giant full moons since becoming vision-impaired, and misty evening walks during the European winter when the streets are full of twinkling lights for Diwali and Christmas are one of my favorite delights!

This image is a crop from one of my recent artworks, titled, “Now hemmed in, now grasping all”. I love to go searching for small abstract compositions within my completed artworks! It’s a great way to practice composing and learn more about what I love.

This is one of the paintings Claude Monet created during his cataract period - this one in 1920. Apparently he couldn’t discern his beloved blues and greens very easily when with cataracts, so he used reds and yellows in the paintings during this period. Very few are left because, after having cataract surgery, he destroyed most of the paintings he had painted during his cataract period. (Public Domain image via Wikimedia.)