“It was more like a conversation of energy rather than of thoughts and ideas. I felt as if I was being transported into another realm.”
It was a familiar scene for me because I’m a painter and for thirty years many of my images have been of two people sitting at a table. My interest is the fleeting moments and the passage of time. So, when I saw Marina sitting there at the table with a person on the other side - and nothing else in the space, I had a particularly personal sense of recognition.
I waited on line several times for hours at a time never sure whether or not I would arrive at a chance to sit opposite Marina. The wait was pleasant. Some people were there for the second or third time and shared their stories. Transformational, cathartic, healing are words I heard more than once. Emotional. She’s magical. Someone spoke of Marina giving a gift.
Others arrived, not knowing what was going on. Curious. What is she doing? They asked. What is this? Is she real? Why is she doing that? Is it a staring contest?
Why do you want to sit with her? Someone asked me. How long do you think you will sit? I didn’t know how to respond. I was just drawn to the situation. Day after day, it seemed like the right place to be. So I went there.
When my turn came, I was a bit nervous. The guard told me to give Marina a couple of minutes in between people. Then he said, “The hardest part is to walk from here to the chair. The rest of it is easy.” And he knew because he had done it himself on his day off. It was good advice.
When I took the seat opposite her, time seemed to stop. I looked into Marina’s eyes, focusing on the breath as I have been learning in my meditation practice. But it was different from meditation. There was an interaction, an intimacy. It was more like a conversation of energy rather than of thoughts and ideas. I felt as if I was being transported into another realm. I felt completely disconnected from everything else. And there was a white light emanating from her head. Sitting opposite Marina wasn’t like anything else. It was not like being in my paintings, either…
When I got up to leave, I felt light in every way – almost high. People approached with questions. What was it like? They wanted to know. How do you feel? How did you know when to get up and leave? I can’t remember my answers, only the feeling. There was the doctor from Latin America and the woman from Paris and her daughter who took photos of me sitting with Marina from the second floor.
I have many good memories not just of sitting but of being there during The Artist is Present. There is no place I would rather have been.
Now that it is over, I wonder what has become of the viewers, the sitters, the guards, the children, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the cool and the compromised. And Marina.
Nora Howard
