for Salvador Dalí's Persistence of Memory Artist: Salvador Dali b. May 11, 1904, Figueres, Spain; d. January 23, 1989, Figueres, Spain Title: Persistence of Memory Date: 1931 Click here for more information Time slaughters decades seasons of inertia bending faces packed with numbers flexible efforts wait stop ask: where are you going now? we are getting there in the essence of memory madness seashells time on the beach time at the window waiting time undressing violent time time to go time to rethink decisions bare tree branches time to climb scrap knees time to fill throat with ants choke slip into daydream paint you dwindling in the corners of the canvas stirring romance time black unrepentant sacrificed disappearing
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For Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird Artist: Frida Kahlo b. July 6, 1907, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico; d. July 13, 1954, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico. Title: Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird Date: 1940 Click here for more information My Dear Frida,
Today I listened for the hummingbird but in the planet of eternity—there was only grief and the hummingbird did not come. Usually I am accustomed to disappointment, which like thorns—swathed around my throat, but today I cannot bear it. I am writing to you because your eyes are open and to be alive is to be erect and to be seen and to observe. I also think this is what it means to be human. Frida, what I have known all along is that something was always almost happening, to us to you and to anyone else disappearing. We are only women born in the land of bombs exploding in all the ways that women explode and this is nothing unique. I must tell you, last night a black cat crossed my path and this morning a monkey—the color of tar sang the prettiest song just where the ground began to split I mourned for but a second, because I am sure this is just a sign, I know what it means to be human. "For Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" has been published by The Ekphrastic Review, September 2018 Artist: Alessandro Nesci b. 1970, Rome, Italy Title: Portrait of A Girl (A Series of Paintings on Expressionism, oil painting on canvas with artistic made preparations) Date: Early 2000's I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Nesci about his inspiration for the series of paintings in which this piece is included and this is what he stated: I tried to paint the portrait of a female figure, a girl. A girl who was born where humanity was born. In this case, the naked breast represents both the ancestral nature of the nude and the emancipation and sexuality together. However, I want to emphasize something that is very important for me in art: every fencer of the work or of poetry, has different sensations and emotions in front of the art. And the readings, the explanations of the works are multiple: the one that gives the artist (but is not unique) and the one that gives the user (which is full of experiences derived from their personal experience, from their culture, social extraction, etc.) . So, the explanation that I gave the picture, it's just a technical explanation and my personal content. But it does not have to influence who looks at the work. More information found here: www.redbubble.com/people/alessandronesci/works/32911961-portrait-of-a-girl-series-on-expressionism-oil-painting-on-canvas-with-artist-made-preparations?asc=u www.redbubble.com/people/alessandronesci www.artecampagnaromana.com/ www.saatchiart.com/alessandronesci in man’s deep sleep she came teaching us to come quietly to gather the meat of the rib between the rustle of leaves and geraniums to make something of it to bear the burdens of masculinity while naked and scattered & undone by romance slithering in the seam of her toes who was she? the one who hungered for fruit? the heritage of sin? the anguish of birth? the evolution of bone from bone flesh of flesh? or is she simply the echo of mankind where I am too just a fallen woman? "Eve after Alessandro Nesci's Portrait of a Girl" has been published in the poetry chapbook Cry Sweat Bleed Write for Van Gogh's Starry Night Artist: Vincent Van Gogh b. 1853, Zundert, Netherlands; d. 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France Title: Starry Night Date: 1889 Information found here: www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889 Tiny town sitting beneath blue violence I live there. Somewhere the scent of yellows. Noiseless and suffered. Somewhere the world doesn’t end. A place where we are all foolish, & bleeding & hopeful. A tiny town. Where there are no stars. for Diego Rivera's Flower Vendor Artist: Diego Rivera b. 1886, Guanajuato, Mexico; d. 1957, Mexico City Mexico Title: The Flower Vendor Date: 1941 Click here for more information In the midst of the American Dream the weight of beauty pulls you into yourself, naked feet, vanishing underneath what’s lovely and pure; a valley of white lilies, waiting, inside what is tired, and calloused, inside your sickly self, moving. But then, you remind yourself to kneel before the flowers and thank them for the journey, and the hands, and tears that tied it all together; and the miracle that not one was lost... after Mark Bradford’s Let's Walk to the Middle of the Ocean Artist: Mark Bradford b. 1961, Los Angeles, California Title: In the Middle of the Ocean Date: 2015 Click here for more information On the night we arrive, it’s raining and my arms are full of bubbles and ocean and of things that are beautiful and real and you. This is a small dream; this blue. black. yellow. night, and our city is regal; we glitter the road. But somehow, we keep getting back to the day after where everything’s ruined and bruised and our hands are unholy. We get back to the place where we are not ready to swim this current or dreams. Photograph taken while in taxi & crossing the Madison Avenue Bridge Bronx, New York Date Photo Taken: December, 2, 2017 by Kay Bell In this rapid progress; I look sideways and there she is; arms filled with velvet rope blue and fragments of concrete spilling from her seams. She must have been a perfectionist, that Anna, each bold letter innocent of error, conforming absolutely to the red brick sheet of paper and journey. A-N-N-A She writes her Bronx love story and then whisks away, to fix her life and a bowl of cereal, in her messy studio apartment, above the gas station, while cars drive by and I sit in the back seat and wonder who was she? after Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World Artist: Andrew Wyeth b. 1917, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; d. 2009 Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania Title: Christina's World Date: 1948 Click here for more information i always wonder why i am here in the center of ambiguity placing parts of myself neatly across the terrain bits of sun scaffolding each bruise and the tears of God finishing me marring my flesh into submissive complexities while the sky rages in a decaying night garnishing each lonely space with: Let there be Light and there was…
for Hamilton's Pin-up Artist: Richard Hamilton b. 1922, London England; d. 2011 London England Title: Pin-up Date: 1961 Click here for more information Each summer, I pretend I’m not tired. I roll my dread into the pale nude mornings & stretch, my breasts waiting for me, counting the slits in my heart, the bric-brac field of broken, the anywhere, everywhere feelings of empty, the mistaken lyrics escaping my throat & the people who swore they knew me. Each summer I tire and begin without shade. My body erect and torn in halves singing from my belly. I reach somewhere, no where closer to find an unfilled space inside of me, where there is laughter and rest. for Matisse’s Italian Woman Artist: Henri Matisse b. 1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France; d. 1954, Nice, France Title: The Italian Woman Date: 1916 Click here for more information |