Hi all
Two works that may seem dark at first but (I feel) carry beautiful and intriguing dualities, making their highlights all the more brilliant - one from an artist I have just discovered , and an old friend to McAllister’s Mates -
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The presentation and accompanying essay for this painting are just as intriguing and arresting as the work itself. While it is always fascinating to see a painting's journey from a few sketch lines to a nuanced and layered finished work, with this piece that journey becomes an integral and vital part of the concept.
The painting itself is a technical marvel, the skeletal structure, sinew, and skin are lovingly and accurately rendered. The sharp precise details sit in stark contrast to the fraught, decayed areas. We are watching a thing of beauty being attacked by the natural forces of decay. Forces that we consciously know are vital to the ecosystem that support our wondrous fishes, but they are given a malevolent, maybe even wicked will of their own. Certainly this painting is a successful depiction of trauma and the terrorising forces of time which humanity has been “gifted” awareness, and therefore fear of. Yet like so many great works of art I feel there are many layers of symbolism to ponder.
The in progress shots of the painting create a secondary journey, one of conception, birth, and growth. We see the spark of life in the fish egg reaching out and spreading into a sleek, glittering creature winding through the ocean. The layers of outlines, shading and paintwork building just as precisely and gracefully as embryonic cells dividing and reshaping to build the still mysterious inhabitants of the ocean. In a similar way we see the spark of an idea light in an imagination, take shape in a mind, and through a skilled and patient hand be born into the world.
The painting may indeed carry an air of melancholy and inevitably about the inescapable reaches of time. However, I also see a call to action, maybe even adventure. Will we waste precious time on regrets, fear of disapproval, and attributing blame, or swim into boundless wonder like the fish and artist?
Was our fish a parent? Will its offspring fly through the waves and in return send their own baby silver ribbons into the ocean? I like to think so. This painting is certainly fertile, a stepping stone in the career of a talented artist with many generations of beautiful works to follow. For my part, it has given me much to think about. I love this idea of an artwork’s development becoming an element of the overall experience, and it's a supreme example of something becoming more than the sum of its parts. I've certainly been given a great deal to think about.
When people think of revelations arising through the act of meditation, they tend to imagine the classical ‘nice’, ‘peaceful’ imagery. Communing with faeries, Buddha at the top of the mountain… This poem is an entirely different sort of meditation journey, an adventure (maybe even an ordeal!) of fire, monsters, and lurking dangers.
The opening verse bursts with primal imagery, blood and rain morphing into shards of glass. Prayer is described as talk of Even the line “I should be clothed in the sun” may be a call to self destruction and fire as much as a plea for warmth.
This prayer is no gesture of submission or plea to some higher authority, it is a demand for respect and a claim to the astral ground. It’s certainly no request for material trinkets in the oh so pernicious and omnipresent “tradition” of “manifesting”, this is the ethereal challenged, and yet revered. Maybe the angels are shocked by this demanding, brash upstart, but their responding words will be heard and cherished. This soul may or may not finish this journey unscathed, they will not however, end it unchanged.
The language becomes ever more evocative and urgent, speaking of being a desolate cavern. Not being IN a desolate cavern,but actually embodying the form. A clever omission that makes what could have been a standard phrase into a startling image. Out of this scene of existential despair, a lion steps forth. A prominent symbol throughout the rest of the poem amid scenes of storms, stinging thorns, and drowning rivers of mud. The lion acts as an avatar for the soul bravely traversing this hazardous landscape of self-mockery and judgement. My personal reading is that the brutality of the landscape and the glorious power of the lion are inseparable. Not one and the same, but an inescapable duality. To recognise where one is lacking is to take responsibility and become the lion braving the journey. To find your courage is to open yourself to that daunting terrain.
At this point you may be thinking this sounds like a depressing and bleak poem - it isn’t. It is a complete narrative. Neither a cloying fairytale nor a self indulgent goth gloomscape. Some beautiful and mystical verses sweep in following the lion’s path, this is where the poem really hits its stride with some highly inventive metaphors and clever juxtaposing. “The veil of soil” - this made me stop. We think of soil as thick, dark and heavy but it's actually fine, light, and granular. Also doesn't soil form the ultimate boundary (and veil) between our bright comfortable world of flowers, grass, and life and the hard, fiery depths of the earth? Genius. I don’t want to say too much more as I feel I would be spoiling the story - Yes, the poem is describing a moment of meditation and solitude but it’s heavy with drama and adventure. This is a beautiful piece with many layers and I feel it will stay with me for days to come.
I hope you enjoy these beautiful works as much as I enjoyed reading them and writing about them.
You can meet some of my other friends in the previous instalments: 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Substack has proven to be a treasure trove and I already have a few more gifted writers lined up for my next review newsletter.
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If you want to keep me in caffeine (and keep the ghostly voices whispering for the poetry side of things) - consider clicking below. For any who do so, you have my deepest gratitude.