Tick-Tock. What is a now?
Can many paintings be a single painting? Can many poems be a single poem? What’s a sequence anyway? What’s unity?
A sound, rhythm, image, dream, gesture, picture, a silence function as “keys” against which all incongruent resources can be considered. An object is whatever it becomes under the impulse of the present situation. The artist fuses the most seemingly contradictory suggestions. The sense of unity that surrounds the art is a reality concept that acts as a mortar, a unification of perspective linking
poet + man/woman
man/woman + world
world + image
image + word
word + music
music + dance
dance + dancer
dancer + man/woman
man/woman + world
etc.
I have to thank Jerome Rothenberg, Technicians of the Sacred, for this layout. As for the mortar: In the United States, the three common types of mortar specified for new construction today are N, S, and M. These designations were assigned by taking every other letter from the term “mason work.” Mortars are differentiated primarily by their strength: M is the highest strength, S is next, and N is a moderate strength mortar.
If you think the strongest mortar is the best solution, think again. True, strong mortars do generally have increased durability and greater structural capacity. The mortar itself is less important for its load carrying capacity than for its other aspects, such as facilitating placement of units. I tend towards the type “S”—not for “Strier”— but for its spall resistance:
| Exterior, at or below grade | Foundation walls, retaining walls, manholes, sewers, pavements, walks and patios | S | |
From ASTM C 270 : Portland Cement Association
I’ve been focused on action. Building on and cementing the knowledge, not the “knowing”.
From: Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries:
Martha Ronk insists “ I am not interested in single words set in white space, but in joinery.” This resounds for me—literally—when composing and digitally manipulating my visual poetry. Mei-mei Berssenbrugge contemplates how a new form of poetry takes place; “It could be a way to write a poem across fragmented concentrations, for example, if you are raising children, instead of traditionally pursuing a single line. It could be a way to write a poem that responds to the barrage of layered stimuli in the world.” My use of magazine advertisements and articles as poetry and painting resources reflects these ideas.
From Adrienne Rich: Arts of the Possible:
“A poet’s problems—the materials she has to grapple with—are infinitely expanding and require a multiplicity of approaches…Even an “experimental” solution can be conventional if it merely repeats an old experiment, doesn’t recognize it has to struggle with a different problem—or with an old problem in a new way…In poetry you need everything you can get your hands on, so you look back and forward and sideways. You are, in a word, avid.”
“For what are we, anyway, at our best, but one small, persistent cluster in a greater ferment of human activity—still and forever turning toward, tuned for, the possible, the unrealized and irrepressible design?”
Notes for Paintings:
From The Remembrance, The Desire
I love this painting. It came fast and deep and has so many layers; I won’t describe. The colors are luminous but the upload to the internet doesn’t display it. The long vertical of the plywood gave me its context of Eastern influences from the start. The materials are a dog food can processed in the burn barrel, a piece of rusted something, a sliver of piston ring from a friend’s camshaft/engine rebuild, and hand knotted fencing found on a hike in the woods. This poem (the 1998 poster for the Dodge Poetry Festival) always in my sights, became part of the process of this painting:
Long night: unable to sleep
The moonlight, how breakingly bright.
Callling, someone seems calling.
Into the empty air, I answer “Yes?”
—Anonymous (#4 of the Zi Yi series), translated by Wai-Lim Yip
I’ve come across 2 other translations for this poem and they don’t compare to the visual and emotional presence I feel from this one.
The Joyous Is The Lake: It means dropping off and bursting open. Among Women it Means the Tongue and Mouth. The Clinging Is Fire: It Means Helmets and Weapons. Among Men it Means the Big Bellied.
The blue water painting turned into a diptych. The story was still being told and now I’m satisfied with the tale being complete. The title came through toe-dipping into the correspondences from the I Ching , Book of Changes. Symbology of the painting informed by symbols.com and various web sources:
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/44/441.html
http://www.symbols.com/old/encyclopedia/26/2618.html
Fire and air represent the Yang within Chinese thought and symbolize the masculine archetype, the active state and the thinking function. Water and earth represent the Yin within Chinese philosophy and symbolize the feminine archetype, the passive state and the intuitive function. Carl Jung qualifies fire and air as active, earth and water as passive.
Since water flows down from above, the visual symbol for water is a downward pointing triangle. Fire’s basic movement is upward; the visual symbol is an upward pointing triangle or pyramid.The colors associated with water is blue and green or retreating colors while colors assocated with fire are red and orange or advancing colors. The earth is associated with a square or a cube (colors are brown, yellow and black) and air is associated with a circle or an arc (colors are blue and gold).
Water is the element whose symbolism stands in direct opposition to that of fire. It is associated with unconsciousness, the darkness of night and the moon's monthly cycles which control ocean tides. Fire is associated with the sun and the light of day which relates to consciousness. Its major symbolism is related to the powers of transformation and purification. Whereas water has different states related to movement or rest, fire is always moving and consuming. Warfare has its cleansings.
The unique property of water is to take the shape of that which surrounds it but to never possess a specific shape by itself. Water symbolizes the suspension of form into a mass of possibilities. The water of the womb where individual life comes from and from the water of the oceans where human life evolved from. Water has the power to abolish, dissolve, purify, wash away and regenerate, symbolism found in many religious rituals.
Water, at its most passive, is symbolized by lakes and ponds and draws people close to engage in the act of refection. The myth of Narcissus centers around the hypnotic power of a reflective surface of water; a first mirror. Deep waters such as seas, lakes and wells have a symbolism related to the dead and the supernatural.
Fire and heat have been used to symbolize human emotions associated with sexual power, seen in popular cliches such as in "the heat of passion." Fire is also related to the process of change, to speed up the passage of time as in “set a fire under your ass.” The dichotomy of fire: It’s good and it’s bad. It’s tasty BBQ and it’s apocalypse.
Any Woman Knows What To Expect When She Gives Him The Best…The title for Packet 1’s painting based on Byzantine/Romanesque artifacts.
Visual Poetry Notes:
Looking backwards and forward and sideways, I’m using old National Geographic images for the backgrounds, digitally altered with Photoshop® filters and color balance curves. Because of my lack of expertise with the software, I’m cavorting with the amateur accidents. However, the structure of the poems are very intentional; I’ve added the challenge of using words from a single ad.
*Lyrics for Tryin’ to Make It Real— Compared to What?
Love the lie and lie the love
Hanging on, with a push and shove
Posession is the motivation
That is hangin' up the goddamn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Everybody now
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Come on baby, now
Slaughter houses are killin' hogs
Twisted children are killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old lady, kissin' dogs
I hate the human love of that stinkin' mutt
I can't use it
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Come on baby, now
The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have (a) one doubt, they call it treason
We chicken feathers all without one nut
Goddamn it!
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Sock it to me
Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Trying to duck the wrath of God
Preachers fillin' us with fright
They all trying to teach us with what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of nut
I can't use it
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
Lover, baby, hey
Where's that bee and where's that honey
Where's my god and where's my money
Unreal values, a crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kinda brings to mind ol' young King Tut
He did it now
Tryin' to make it real, compared to what
No comments:
Post a Comment