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| Nude (i) {mixed media / cold-pressed 300gsm Fabriano / 100 x 150cm } SOLD |
Chalky
gesso stained with night-black calligraphy ink, drying in deep swathes
of rapid brushtrokes -- and between layers, I'll grab this writing time.
Another commission, and this time - a portrait. Unclothed, intimate. A
gesture for her lover, above his bed.
“For
so many centuries, the exchange of gifts has held us together. It has
made it possible to bridge the abyss where language struggles.”
― Barry Lopez, About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
Entering
into this gift exchange of theirs, I feel a strange discomfort. A
necessary sort of intrusion. Without the involvement of the artist and
her ability to capture a subject's external and internal likeness, this
poetically loving gift wouldn't be possible. And so, unwittingly, I am
witness to her devoted passion for this man she loves, and - I believe -
will always love.
“It
isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can
transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of
you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View
This
is, without a doubt, a far less conflicted commission to undertake than
the previous one which was almost a slap in the face, but one which I
had no choice but to accept as smilingly and gratefully as possible -
because, hell, quite simply, I needed the money. I have certain artist
friends who refuse - in exaggerated (almost comical) revulsion at even
being approached to undertake a commission of this sort. University
cultivated this self-same aesthetic bigotry in me -- but it earned me
nothing but confused friends and mindless arguments where egos and
values clashed. Ugly. Life and its painful twists and exciting turns
grows us, whether we like or not. Whether we even
see it or not. And this is one particular area Life has gifted me a new perspective on.
(I posted this blog-jot on my other website, Frou-Frou & Fish, by mistake because both blogs celebrate by examination: beauty, art and meaning.)
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| Nude (ii) {graphite / 300gsm Fabriano / 40 x 50cm } SOLD | | | |
