A blog in which I write about Art, my art, and making art in the following areas
1) Pastel drawings
2) Photography
3) The LGBTQ Pictionary: art about historical figures and language related to LGBTQ people
4) Initial Singularities and Other Universes
3) Digital montages with a gay male theme, and
4) A blog titled Isaac Stolzfuts' Journal
The painting finished
Five years ago
“It can’t be,” you say.
“Oh, but it was.
You remember that evening,” I say.
We sat on the Intracoastal at sunset,
Looked toward the ocean
To see giant towers –
Smooth and round, mounded
Sky miracle,
Glowing gold and orange with
Diamond flashes of charged sparks.
Gaea was throwing a temper tantrum out toward the Bahamas.
You and I, that second year -
Of a new life shared together,
So lucky to have retired
Before bubble burst
And that storm
Tore through the nation
Man made destruction
By Capitalist speculators
Bankers and Idiot builders.
Lightning and thunder
Mother of man
Wearing her electrified cloud crown.
Lightning and thunder,
Man wearing his dunce cap -
Thank God we had the luck,
Avoided their blunder.
“We’ve never won a thing,” I say.
“Oh but yes we have,” you say.
Oh, but it was
Five years ago
That I painted
“Thunderstorm.”
The sun goes down behind you when standing on the Atlantic in south Florida. Never the less, the soft gold, salmon and yellow that gild the waves and clouds are quite spectacular, so much subtler than the intense brilliance of our sunrises.
Upon revisiting this 32” x 40” pastel painting from 2007, I am interested to note that the grid system I employ is quite visible through subtle changes in color. I hadn’t noticed the color variations at the time I made the drawing based on two digitally merged photos. However, I have since begun to work only in the late morning and early afternoon when white light is the most intense because I am increasingly unable to distinguish subtle color variations as I age. At the same time as unlikely as it might be - if I am ever noted as an artist of some small importance - this visual error will perhaps make the work more valuable. Meanwhile, I keep doing the work because I must - a gift is never to be squandered no matter how small or unimportant it may be.
There is never enough of it, and as I age I become more and more aware that I may be running out of TIME. This digital montage expresses the feeling I have that time is a spinning vortex and that we each are caught at the center, right above the pulled plug. Of course, one’s immanent demise by stupidity, disease or accident is always possible at any age. However, I also know that the divine spark at the center – not God’s special gift of identity in this world - returns sans ego to God. Thus, that which is important to me here will not be important when I return to God. Still, the disorienting fear returns when I least expect it.
Northern Palm Beach County beaches are closer to the Gulf Stream than any other beaches in Florida. Typically it is about 3 miles from the beach to that warm current. However, some days the stream must be lapping at our sandy shore because the water turns many shades and tints of brilliant turquoise blue, some milky pale, others deep blue-green, and every color between. The water looks as though it is lit from within. On such days, I can’t pull my eyes away from the water, and I have trouble leaving the beach because my artist’s eyes and heart are so filled with joy. Here I’ve put together a short two and one/half minutes of images from two of those “Gulf Stream Daze.”
Once again, as I view the video through Blogger, it stops motion. It is best viewed by going to You Tube and viewing it directly.
With the completion of the first WAVE in series II, a 32” x 40” pastel painting, I find myself looking at every kind of ocean wave, big, small, clear, dirty, stormy, sunny, smashing on rocks, or slowly rolling onto a beach. You name it, I want to see it and photograph it. The intent is to paint more of these series II WAVES, and I wrote about why that is so in the March 28th journal entry.
So, the other day I went to the beach, camera in hand and shot several hundred photos of the miniature south Florida Atlantic waves one finds when the wind is almost nonexistent and blowing off the land. The water wasn’t quite flat though it definitely looked no bumpier than a large fresh water lake might on a breezy day. It was also the most interesting shade of blue/aqua-green I think I’ve ever seen, very transparent, but with a slight gray shimmer, almost as though a thin molecular coating of milk covered the surface. I include one of the photos here, though reduced in size and detail. The crystal clear fingers of water in the breaking wave are fascinating, and I like the way some shells, and pebbles bend small waves of water around their forms while others are slightly blurred or crystal clear. Ultimately, I know I will choose one or two sections from this photograph to become WAVE #2 and #3 in Series II.”
Another one of my early morning escapades produced this photo among hundreds shot in quick succession as the sun rose over the South Florida Atlantic. I always sit on the beach and change focal length, f-stop, and shutter speed in various combinations. From the moment the first rays peek over the horizon until the sun is well above it - I may fill 4 gigs of memory. Out of all those images perhaps 10 to 15 are used as part of a pastel, digital montage and/or distressed painting. Some like this one I keep as a photograph because I find a special affinity for the image. Perhaps in this photo it is the lonely Pelican, the way the clouds lower toward the right side of the image as the bird slowly rises flying against the storm toward the right. The clouds and rain though threatening are not frightening because the yellow-orange of the sunrise works around, under and through parts of the rain clouds. The picture hints at the possibility of an early morning rain, with a ravishingly beautiful day to follow. Of course, that is my narrative. I’m sure the reader will see it in his/her own way. In fact, I would enjoy having some responses in "comments" as to the story you see in the image.
Music to Accompany Pelican Sunrise - Janine Jansen violin. (added Thursday, April 5, 2012)
Taken from You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYexIpR5js, 10:30 AM, EDT, Thursday, April 5, 2012. The excerpt below is also translated from the Dutch at the Website.
"The track from the Dutch film Süskind for violin and orchestra was written by the composers Bob Zimmerman and Nando Eweg. The solo part is written for the famous violinist. The track 'Summer 1945' at the end of the film to hear and download on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/7mx8uf2
The film based on the truth of Rudolf van den Berg is about the Jewish resistance hero Walter Süskind. As manager of the Dutch Theater in Amsterdam he was able to prevent hundreds of Jewish children were put on transport to concentration camps."
The music is also appropriate to my feelings surrounding the tragic state of our national argument about the "legal" killing of Travon Martin.
Why is the death of Travon Martin Polarizing America?
His Death is so much more complicated than the dichotomous position most of us seem to be taking. Of course it is a horrible tragedy, and my heart goes out to his family. As to Mr. Zimmerman - he made two mistakes. One he followed an unarmed teen with a bag of candy against police advice. Two, he also carried a gun against police advice. I'm certain Mr. Zimmerman did not intend to kill Travon Martin. However, Mr. Zimmerman is also innocent of committing a crime according to a state law that places every one of us in danger of being killed (Drunk drivers have pulled guns on us on the highway on two separate occasions. If we had been shot, all the killer would have had to say was that we threatened him/her.). It is this absurd, "Stand Your Ground" law that should be on trial, not Mr. Zimmerman. Of course, additionally this controversy is about racism, the reaction on both sides of the issue is incontrovertible PROOF! Additionally, and importantly it is about three things; gun law in general, the NRA, and the Supreme Court's stand on gun law. It is also about the adequate function of law enforcement, character assassination, mixed race and/or ethnicity, crazed citizen response on electronic media. It is about falsified images. It is even about young black men who wear HOODIES for goodness sake (I wear one occasionally, and I'm a 67 year old WHITE MALE!). I include a portion of an excellent discussion of some of the ramifications of this controversy from the Chris Hayes show on MSNBC. It begins with Representative Maloney presuming that Martin is innocent, but the discussion becomes much more involved and complex as it continues. Sorry about the DAMNED commercial at the beginning!
