River of Time

I heard a very interesting metaphor about how some cultures, probably far eastern, see the passage of time. It goes something like this:

A person is sitting on a bridge over a river. The water is flowing away from him. Little paper boats come from under the bridge and float away. Those boats are moments of time. When they become visible to our observer, they are moments of the past. Before they reach the bridge, the boats are little packets of future moments.

This idea is intriguing, if not counterintuitive. I always thought, when one faces forward, one looks to the future. However, if we look at the river of time from the vantage point mentioned above, the future is approaching us, unseen.

Today’s experiment:

During one of my dreams last night, I saw an abstract form. I don’t know if it was from one of the art books or if I made it up. I began my composition with an approximation of that form: a blue disc with a red rectangle. I merged this shape with my visualization of the river of time.

I used my yellows for the river of the past and painted the future (behind the observing disc) an indistinct gray. The present instant is that place within the red field (highlighted in white) through which the river flows.

River of Time
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block