I forgot to post this poem that my wife wrote which inspired me as I was working on the last painting. I think it speaks to what it means to be an artist, and why I see the work we do as valuable even when we're not what academia might consider a "fine artist." I hope some of you can read it and feel similarly inspired about your own work as artists.
Teinoscope
(Physics) An instrument formed by combining prisms so as to correct the chromatic aberration of the light while linear dimensions of objects seen through the prisms are increased or diminished; - called also prism telescope.
I have seen you standing still beneath
rapid clouds at dusk, collecting the light,
drawing the gathered radiance in like breath.
You store it everywhere—as lines, faces,
in crowded notebooks—till it spills out, bright,
new-made. Is this creation, these mixed pieces,
When patched-together, conglomerate, they
emerge like sparks from your hands, lightened
and whole?
Some men stockpile days
Like weapons, against the cataclysm.
From you, the stored scraps of collected light
leak like constant suns. And what wrought prisms
allow these sudden visions: myself, made
larger and more beautiful, all the bright
fragments ripened and mingled, naked, laid
like webs of stars together? Those saved skies
reflected back to me, mirrors on mirrors,
A tiny universe within your eyes?
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What a pair you two make. Top-notch.
ReplyDeleteinteresting blog. thanks for the posts.
ReplyDeletereally cool
ReplyDeleteShe's brilliant, of course. And Melissa is right - a fortunate and scintillating pairing. I read this aloud to G and he said, "That's a tremendous poem," quite a thing from a man who used to write when he was young and passionate.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I love is that she draws in sounds that have glass edges; she plays with light as much as you do.
But the thing I love best is the way you have made her feel over these years, through all these children; she was special to begin with - I have known that for decades - you didn't waste the gift of her.
As far as process goes, it is also thus with me - when I do write, which I don't very much anymore - not that storytelling sort of writing - I do it that way, breathing in the pieces, breathing out new wholes - and a truth that is somehow the sum of its parts.
K: Yes, this poem is tremendous, and I agree that it applies to all expressions of creativity and creation---which I think comes naturally when one applies God-like reflections on human activities.
ReplyDeleteThat is wonderful.
ReplyDelete