Terry Tempest Williams is the author of Refuge, An Unspoken Hunger, and Desert Quartet. On this one-hour interview with Michael Toms, she discusses her most recent book, Leap, which revolves around a seven-year study of Hieronymus Bosch's fifteenth-century Flemish painting "The Garden of Delights."
For Williams, this masterpiece raises a host of important questions including: What is the meaning of life? What is real and what is imagined? Can a work of art be a prayer? What do animals have to teach us? How do we make peace with the darkness within ourselves? How do we find hope in the middle of despair? What do we believe? Where do we go for transformation when our traditions no longer feed and nourish us?
Williams, a Mormon, talks about how Bosch's medieval triptych compelled her to re-examine her faith and move to a deeper level of spirituality inspired by the wildness in art and in nature. Listening to her speak about the many questions aroused by seven years of reading this painting, you will find yourself thinking afresh about the awesome ability of art to serve as a vehicle for spiritual transformation. She quotes Federico Garcia Lorca's observation — "We must follow the vein of our blood." And the blood of Terry Tempest Williams leads her to a faith in restoration and a hope that one day soon we will see the world afresh — like Bosch — with eyes of wonder and reverence.
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