Selections from "Climbing Eros"
I have tried to look at the scars on my body as though they are lines on a map.
When I was a little girl, my mother would take me for walks not far from where we lived, but as a child the walks felt far. Mother sometimes asked me to stop. She'd say, "Now turn around and look where you are, look in every direction." She said this was how I could know where I am and how I could find my way back.
Starting out, we carry visions of grandeur of mountains... of the sea... of temples... of horizons where God has stored the memories of our gardens. But then what we often find is water or just another road. That's what people don't talk about when they talk about places or travel. They don't mention that between all the mountains and seas and temples is a long time coming.
I have tried to look at the scars on my body, as though they are lines on a map. The cicatrix on my foot crosses a desert. The mar between my fingers is where a river splits a canyon. The marks on my side are a configuration of shoals. I have tried...
Climbing Eros originated as a film, directed by Charles M Pepiton, featuring two meditations—one of confession, one of returning to materiality—that knit the threads of hiking and gathering around Jean-Luc Marion’s notion that “Loving requires distance and the crossing of distance.”
This book features the paintings created for that film project alongside the written meditations. Order your copy here.
Paintings by Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton
Writing by Damon Falke
Also, check out Damon and Rebekah’s earlier collaboration on Juke, “Bread Turned to Stone: Notes from a Greek Island”
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Damon Falke is the author of, among other works, The Scent of a Thousand Rains, Now at the Uncertain Hour, By Way of Passing, and Koppmoll (film). He lives in northern Norway.
Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton is a multi-disciplinary artist, art educator, and lover of the outdoors. She lives in Washington State. More about her work can be found on her website: www.bekawp.com