Love Canada
Fuseli knew William Blake. And Blake was so weird. And both, weird, we love them. Intense, the world beyond the world, the nightmare. Fuseli was the only man that didn't make Blake "spew". And why was that? And then there's Samuel Palmer, and the dreamy landscape. Another Blake pal. Boyo, i love them.
I am English, and Welsh, and that's about it. So I get to say these fella's stir me up at the roots. Well, Fuseli is Swiss, but still, its that Romantic nightmare stuff. Love it.
And ...another topic, I feel all over the place, I have to say, who can beat the Canadians!? The Canadian 7, and all that followed! Love them!
And Tom Thompson, such a great painter, such a passionate asexual (apparently) being, out in the deep woods at the end of train line, young, and painting the root of all Canadian/European painting, and then... falling out of a canoe, while peeing, his fly unzipped, and drowning, damn. Was there a paint box in that canoe?
And that tree, windy, winding, silhouetted, a white capped lake, and a score of painters after painting the same damned thing. Heroic. Remembered. Was he happy?A life fulfilled?
And poor Emily Carr and her monkey. Both such immigrants. You'd have to be Bella Coolla and live here 10,000 years before you figured out what the woods were all about. She tried, and Mark Tobey claims the credit, and the poor monkey, without monkey friends, but chained to a camp stool. Where the hell did she get a monkey?
I spent my early 20's in the woods, painting in Olympia, and i knew about Emily, and saw and painted the same spartan Doug Fir in a clear cut , and the spirit of the woods. Its all through a filter, I did what i could, but really knew nothing- and know nothing, really, now. Its not hard to admit.
I continue, through a filter, darkly. I hope to some sort of transcendent painting. Something beyond what i see in my dentist's office. Something I can trade my dentist for a root canal, which i think is about two grand. It would have to be a pretty nice painting.
I am English, and Welsh, and that's about it. So I get to say these fella's stir me up at the roots. Well, Fuseli is Swiss, but still, its that Romantic nightmare stuff. Love it.
And ...another topic, I feel all over the place, I have to say, who can beat the Canadians!? The Canadian 7, and all that followed! Love them!
And Tom Thompson, such a great painter, such a passionate asexual (apparently) being, out in the deep woods at the end of train line, young, and painting the root of all Canadian/European painting, and then... falling out of a canoe, while peeing, his fly unzipped, and drowning, damn. Was there a paint box in that canoe?
And that tree, windy, winding, silhouetted, a white capped lake, and a score of painters after painting the same damned thing. Heroic. Remembered. Was he happy?A life fulfilled?
And poor Emily Carr and her monkey. Both such immigrants. You'd have to be Bella Coolla and live here 10,000 years before you figured out what the woods were all about. She tried, and Mark Tobey claims the credit, and the poor monkey, without monkey friends, but chained to a camp stool. Where the hell did she get a monkey?
I spent my early 20's in the woods, painting in Olympia, and i knew about Emily, and saw and painted the same spartan Doug Fir in a clear cut , and the spirit of the woods. Its all through a filter, I did what i could, but really knew nothing- and know nothing, really, now. Its not hard to admit.
I continue, through a filter, darkly. I hope to some sort of transcendent painting. Something beyond what i see in my dentist's office. Something I can trade my dentist for a root canal, which i think is about two grand. It would have to be a pretty nice painting.
 |
| Drawing show in Everett. Taking it down this week. |
Comments
this has nothing to do with this blog entry, but i don't know where else to contact you. i just wanted to tell you how grateful i am for one of your nudes. kim scanlon placed her in the space we used for a writing workshop a few months back, and, though neither of us knew it at the time, i NEEDED that nude next to me. the realizations i made about myself as a woman were, i have no doubt, aided by your beautiful painting that i happened to sit right in front of both days. as an artist, i'm sure you are never told enough what an impact your art has on those who get to see it, and so i wanted to say thank you and let you know what a powerful catalyst she was for me. please, please keep creating. we need it.
namaste, matthew.