Tuesday, August 11

give me a break



I am stuck,
I miss island life so much
I can't bear not to be surrounded
by the ocean - oh fuck
that it must be such,
I'm grounded.

So I paint
the missing piece
colors scattered,
but no stroke flatters
my fancy at all
there is no way
to replace
the real thing with
pigments on a flat face




At least I have a fine pool at my work-site, and I can plunge in whenever needed. Not everybody can share such luxury. But it is not the ocean, that's for sure.

So yeah, I paint to create the inner illusion that I am there, that I can smell and feel the salty breeze. This is my placebo for the real thing. Carving wood or chipping stones has to be put on hold - for now...

OK, so this is the stuff I do in my days off.
And now you know, and now you know also that I am a sick puppy catching up with life, limping down the alley called 'Atlantic Avenue' in search for the shores and the endless expanding horizons of a real ocean.
One day I will be free to call it "mine". And trust me, it will happen. I say this with confidence, because only artists are visionaries. The scientists (limp, LOL) scramble to catch up for every step done ahead by persons with creative intuition.
Scientists define boundaries, artists break them.
Scientists analyze what is, artists depict what can become. Scientists content themselves with mostly dead matter, artists observe the living world.
Scientist define chlorine as a deadly substance for living organisms when assimilated in certain quantities, artists just jump into the pool head on, no matter what.
I have a pool at my job-site.
But it will never replace the ocean.

9 comments:

susan said...

Hi Zee, naturally I had to enlarge the photograph to see the painting and then got caught up in how beautiful your studio is again. I love the multiple mismatched windows with the lovely scene outdoors that you overlook.

Is that a ghost shop in the painting? It looks like it but perhaps my perspective was slewed. Nevertheless, it's fascinating and beautiful.

Once you jump in just keep paddling until you reach the magic shore - chlorine or not.

gfid said...

are you mixing salt in the paint? it LOOKS like salt air on that canvas! and i'm sure the temperature here warmed up several degrees when i looked at that sky. yumm stuff, Z!

Seraphine said...

i love your work area, especially all the different angles in the walls, windows and sculptures.
thats the thing with scientists: they define. it's the same with artists. maybe the difference is perception rather than substance.

Anonymous said...

Your studio is just beautiful! So much light...!

I miss the ocean every day and I cringe when I see the "beaches" in Ottawa. I'd rather not go at all...

What I miss the most are these big storms we use to have by the sea in Brittany.

Zee said...

Susan
I will keep on painting, will post a closeup when I am done...

Zee said...

Oh fiddler
...music is also in the air, not only the salty breeze.

Zee said...

creative Sera
thanks for cheering me up, finally cleaned up shop so I can create a mess again! (I will try to keep it reasonable)
I still believe that the minds of "artistic" people aim towards the future, whereas "scientific" minds keep penetrating past and present.
Both are needed, but I do admit that I have my preferences in which league I wish to "play"...

Zee said...

Hi Zhu!
I just put my sailboat 15 foot daysailer (about 5 meters) on the market, for sale...
I am hunting now for an either slightly larger vessel where I can also find shelter for overnight stays, or a motorboat, slim and shallow, that can reach places quickly. All the while sniffing salty air, no matter what...

Anonymous said...

Coooooool!