.
Stare
into the blank universe
Shout
I don’t deserve this
Watch
the indifferent molecules shrug, move on
.
Look
into the book called history
Cultivate
nostalgia for a past that’s not your own
Lie
about it
.
Take
a cup of wonder
Drink it,
deep and cold
Thank
whatever’s there (or not)
.
Choose.
.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Rainy Days and Bloody Sundays
Okay, the haiku's sort of a downer. The picture's a little brighter, don't you think? It's listed on eBay, if you think it's so wonderful you'd like to pay five whole dollars for it. What the hell, I'm having a lot of fun.
It's a cold and rainy Sunday here in Connecticut...but Mother Earth needs the rain, so I'm not complaining. I went to the Hygienic Art Show last night...in case you're surfing by, the Hygienic was a greasy spoon type restaurant in New London (methinks the restaurant doth protest too much?) that closed down in the '80s. The city was going to tear it down, but a bunch of bleeding-heart types decided to save it (just kidding). They turned it into an art gallery. It has naked ladies on the side (an interpretation of the Graces, I believe) to the horror of prim and secretly prurient city fathers and mothers. I've never been to one of the shows before.
But last night, my friend Carrie was in the show! It's a juried show, so that's quite an honor. She had two photos accepted, titled My America I and My America II. They've very cool. Carrie's a team member on this blog, so you can get to hers from here, but I know she hasn't posted them...yet, anyway. I hope she does.
I should go to more shows like that. It's not so much that I "get ideas" from other people's art--it's more like I give myself permission to express what's not quite conventional or "acceptable" to express. It made me want to finish a couple of pieces that I've started.
Another exciting thing happened at the gallery...I was standing next to a bin with various posters in it, and I noticed that there were things in there that looked like menus...sure enough, they were old Hygienic menus! The reason this was exciting (in case you think I've lost my mind) is that my mother worked there, back in the early to mid '70s! I have some wonderful memories of the place (which kept the counter and all the fixtures, by the way). I told Carrie last night about visiting my mother there after my father had disowned me for (horror of horrors) seeing a Jewish man, to whom I was subsequently married for 15 years. My mother died in the early '80s of colon cancer, and I still miss her. This greasy menu full of cheap, tasty food is a fitting memento.
Carrie, I hope you continue with your art. Bon voyage!
It's a cold and rainy Sunday here in Connecticut...but Mother Earth needs the rain, so I'm not complaining. I went to the Hygienic Art Show last night...in case you're surfing by, the Hygienic was a greasy spoon type restaurant in New London (methinks the restaurant doth protest too much?) that closed down in the '80s. The city was going to tear it down, but a bunch of bleeding-heart types decided to save it (just kidding). They turned it into an art gallery. It has naked ladies on the side (an interpretation of the Graces, I believe) to the horror of prim and secretly prurient city fathers and mothers. I've never been to one of the shows before.
But last night, my friend Carrie was in the show! It's a juried show, so that's quite an honor. She had two photos accepted, titled My America I and My America II. They've very cool. Carrie's a team member on this blog, so you can get to hers from here, but I know she hasn't posted them...yet, anyway. I hope she does.
I should go to more shows like that. It's not so much that I "get ideas" from other people's art--it's more like I give myself permission to express what's not quite conventional or "acceptable" to express. It made me want to finish a couple of pieces that I've started.
Another exciting thing happened at the gallery...I was standing next to a bin with various posters in it, and I noticed that there were things in there that looked like menus...sure enough, they were old Hygienic menus! The reason this was exciting (in case you think I've lost my mind) is that my mother worked there, back in the early to mid '70s! I have some wonderful memories of the place (which kept the counter and all the fixtures, by the way). I told Carrie last night about visiting my mother there after my father had disowned me for (horror of horrors) seeing a Jewish man, to whom I was subsequently married for 15 years. My mother died in the early '80s of colon cancer, and I still miss her. This greasy menu full of cheap, tasty food is a fitting memento.
Carrie, I hope you continue with your art. Bon voyage!
Thursday, April 20, 2006
How Can I Keep From Singing?
My life goes on in endless song
Above Earth's lamentation
I hear the real though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
.
This is variously described as a Shaker, Quaker, or 'Sunday School' hymn that I first heard sung a capella by John McCutcheon. (I had to look 'capella' up; two p's is the Italian spelling, one the Latin.)
.
It's one of my favorite hymns, though I find it more or less 'areligious', if there were such a word. By that I don't mean 'secular'; I mean it's a spiritual feeling that can't be tied to any one religion.
.
Imagine.
.
May, waxing ecstatic
A BC Postcard has arrived!
A couple of months ago, I posted a request for mail art on a German site. My criteria were that the postcards must contain either artwork or poetry relating to Breast Cancer. Well, I finally got my first postcard!
If I'm reading the name right, this card is from Taka Noreiks in Leipzig, Germany. The name of the piece is "Mrs.", and the work is meant to portray the healthy side of the coin. I fooled with the image in photoshop, but I couldn't get it to register the incredible beauty of the blue-greens in this painting. I'll treasure it. Thank you, Taka, wherever you are!
It's drawn me, all evening. I've been trying the fix the terrible scan my machine took of it, without much luck, and I'm getting sleepier by the minute...drop a comment, won't you, if you're ambling by?
Time for bed.
If I'm reading the name right, this card is from Taka Noreiks in Leipzig, Germany. The name of the piece is "Mrs.", and the work is meant to portray the healthy side of the coin. I fooled with the image in photoshop, but I couldn't get it to register the incredible beauty of the blue-greens in this painting. I'll treasure it. Thank you, Taka, wherever you are!
It's drawn me, all evening. I've been trying the fix the terrible scan my machine took of it, without much luck, and I'm getting sleepier by the minute...drop a comment, won't you, if you're ambling by?
Time for bed.
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