The Imaginery of Love

Spirit through the Valley


The Imaginery of Love - Destino

“Time unfolds you,” is the first line of Redeeming Time – A Tribute to Salvador Dali by Darcy Downing, poet and writer. Those three words could be used to explain a work by Dali which unfolded after his death and is considered one of his best pieces of work.

Salvador Dali, the Spanish surrealistic artist was a master of imagery. I watched a six minute short film several times, wanting more. I asked the man in charge, “Where did it come from? How can I get a copy of it? Why haven’t we seen it before? Why is it hidden from the world?”

Not only the work, but the destiny of the film itself intrigued me. The film by Salvador Dali called Destino – Destiny of Love found its own destiny after a half of a century.

This film is of the image of a burning flame melting the white waxy candle, turning drops of wax into a fluid form of a woman. She flows like a summer breeze in a soft, white, sheer gown towards the trapped man. He is encased in a solid square block unable to move. The image of a bird covers the stoic man’s heart and eventually pulls loose and flies away to look for love leaving a hole in the man’s chest. The fluid flame of the woman is drawn to the cold stone man. She finds her place in his heart and she sets him free.

This scene has many layers, the love between a man and woman, their differences and how they complete each other; it could also easily have a spiritual implication of God’s love and man’s stony heart. It shows that love has no boundaries. It can break down walls, and time can not destroy it. Love will continue it.

Walt Disney’s nephew Roy Edward Disney unearthed the dormant project in 1999 which was hid away in a vault. He decided to bring it to life and the short was completed in 2003.

Production began on this film in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The storyboard by Disney studio artist John Hench and artist Salvador Dali worked for eight months in late 1945 and 1946. Disney ceased production on it because of financial concerns. The Disney Studios was plagued by many financial woes in the World War 11 era. Disney borrowed against his home to keep the studio alive. Destino was not deemed financially viable and it was put on indefinite hiatus.

The project was collaborated by American animator Walt Disney, Spanish painter surrealist Salvador Dali and it features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez.

What an odd threesome to bring an exquisite piece of art to life: Disney and his animated childlike characters, Dali with his genius artistry, and Dominguez’s recognizable music in Disney films. The three found a way to bridge their art into a work that quietly explodes in one’s heart. Great things are seldom bright and flashy and intruding, but quiet and unassuming. Destino quietly unearths the treasure in the viewer’s heart by its genius quality.

Bill Desowitz wrote in 2003, “In a dreamlike universe, a man made of stone frees himself from his mooring to go after the woman carved in his heart. In this surreal dance of love, man and woman overcome the natural abyss between them,”

Dali’s signature time piece, the melting clock, is seen in Destino. Many stories come from this image. “Time unfolds you,” Downing writes, “We are God's poetry knowing not the last sentence or phrase”. Dali died before he saw the completion of his masterpiece unfold, not knowing the last sentence written.

“Present and past meet at the window and laugh with relief,” another line of Downing’s poem. When Roy Disney found this work, Destino, he brought the present and past together, and the window that stands between diminishes in the heart of the viewer. Does the world acknowledge this piece of art to be great? No. The world will walk past, but the heart knows its greatness.

The carved woman in the man’s heart completed him. The art and passion in our hearts will play its part to complete us also. Take heart, my dear artist and writer friends, do today what you carry in your heart and it will carry your destiny, the final sentence has not been written. We are still living our story.

The Final Brushstroke! “There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few that will catch your heart. Pursue them.” Anonymous