Stories tagged painting

Writing From Paintings (a meditation on the work of artist Michelle Manley)

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Since we are heading past the outskirts, we find ourselves with a hidden reserve of valor and ability. What is this ability? It is the way we look now at strange new clouds menacing and waiting. It is also the way we head forth into them and their environ

The Caselvetrano Olive

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He spotted her in Sarasota Whole Foods surveying the artichokes

The Tribe of Women

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One can’t predict the final cadence of one’s life.

The Model & The Artist

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I advertised in the local paper for a model.

The Pit and Philip Guston

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Above the chasm of life burn two fires at either side of the framed painting that stands on the pink and red plain. And inside the painting itself an orange rain falls, accumulating in a sea of red. Rocks can’t stand their small shadows anymore

Philip Guston, Painting, Smoking, Eating

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As far as I can tell, all he eats is wedges of cake from the plate on top of his blanket as he lies there in bed, smoking cigarettes and staring up at the painting of a pile of shoes. Or else this is a real pile of shoes building up beside the

Philip Guston Painting of the Courtroom

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While the head of the KKK stands by for the next order, ready to mete out punishment, and smoking a cigar. They are so efficient, like ex-Nazis.

Déjà Vu Sur l’Herbe

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While watching the ever-present crowds passing by on my insides, I noticed, by accident, a man smiling who might have been me, not sure. Maybe I’m eating soap for the first time, because I am either frothing or foaming at the mouth. An

Philip Guston and the Tomb

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You will see a lot of horseshoes have been piled on top of the tomb, or else a large number are making their way toward the top, crawling up the steps of the tomb one by one. They lean over the next step and tilt forward, since they have to achieve

T.S. Eliot On His Deathbed

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I guess at the end you’re only looking forward. Or upward actually, since you can only lie there on your back looking upward, straight ahead toward infinity, your mouth in a grimace, with the ghostly pink lips peeled back from the teeth.

Philip Guston Painting, The Pit #2

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There’s an army of legs in the pit, with fires burning at both sides of the horizon, swept aside from the center like curtains. A painting of bright red water with orange rain falling through the blackened air, standing on the plain in the center,

Yarber's Floating World

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Can’t tell the difference between a torch and the woman’s hair, as she reaches across the candlelit table, throwing a drink in the man’s face. Ice cubes and everything, the contents of the glass casting a shadow across his forehead. His hair als

Self-Portrait with Pipe and Bandaged Ear

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His ear is swathed by a large white bandage that runs down under the chin. Dressed in a heavy dark green coat, buttoned at the neck. Streaks of orange relieve the darkness of the green. Purple and black cap on his head. Calmly smoking a pipe.