The poet describes the dancing crowd as “an ocean of mud”. Perhaps that was her perspective from the stage as she sang to the audience.
The Picture
This painting sat half done all summer. The imagery is inspired by the words of the poem. The paint application is a study of motion, swirling, spinning… I also enjoy how the background figures have taken on a character of their own.
I feel this poem is about how self-absorbed people can be. We often think only about themselves and only from our own perspective, with a lack of understanding for other people. The raven has no idea of what reality is for the sparrow.
The Picture
I have been busy creating art using new print media. This is my first ever linocut of a sparrow (Cowbird). It was created for another project, but the poem and image fit together perfectly. Look for the raven (crow) linocut to be posted later this month. These prints will also be appearing on a number of downtown Calgary utility boxes.
The theme of homeless people has returned once again. I think Sue was remembering the poor people she met while she was on the road playing in bar bands. Many just lived day to day scraping together a few dollars, stuck in a life of poverty. The same people she would later try to help in her job as a social worker.
The Picture
This is a new addition to the cardboard “Suite Street” paintings. Charlie and Rose, who are pictured in this painting are imagined people, but they embody the many I’ve met living in the shabby old hotels where Sue and the band played, struggling to get by.
Music is not a simple thing when it is analyzed. It’s mathematical and exact, so it seems to be quite a contradiction that making music can be such a spontaneous, joyful experience.
The Picture
This painting was begun a long time ago and sat half finished in a corner for years. Recently, I realized the painting expresses the same idea as the poem. Sue’s poem inspired me to rework the painting and even start over with a new guitar player (always the guitar player). This is about the love of music.
This little ditty is plain and simple. The message is work out, eat right and you will be healthy and happy. I wish I could hear the music that goes with the words, but the song died with the singer. No doubt this would have been a great, upbeat, work out song.
The Picture
This is the largest and most detailed painting created for this blog so far. My intention was to capture the action and strength of the back flip. The message echo’s the poem. Physical vitality and human spirit are developed through exercise. Exercise is uplifting.
I believe this poem describes the act of writing a poem or song. The poet acknowledges that the inspiration for her poetry comes from the situations and sorrows of people she knew “from so long ago”.
The Picture
This time, the meaning of the poem did not influence the subject matter of the art. Instead, certain words jumped out at me (black, white, tea, hope, sorrow, so long ago, Evelyn). Those words created a spontaneous picture of “Evelyn” in my subconscious mind, which I then put to paper.
This short, sweet poem is about how our children become like us over time. Or at least so I thought at first. But Sue the poet always has some underlying, darker message that ebbs beneath the surface. When you look closely, the message is clear.
The Picture
In this painting, the imagery is as sweet as the first words of the poem. I didn’t intend anything beneath the surface, but I did intend for the paint to sit on the canvas’ surface. As a painter I am experimenting with paint and pattern. It feels good and may be the start of a new “painterly approach” for me.
It’s a little ironic that Sue wrote this poem about a dear friend that died and now the same poem applies so perfectly to her.
The Picture
To me, November is a dark month. It’s the month of Remembrance Day, my mother’s passing, Sue’s passing, as well as several others. This portrait of my father is painted from a photo taken on the day of my mother’s funeral…in November.
Lucky Me Unlucky You
Should I say that I loved you and nobody’s above you
or say that it wasn’t that way
All the times we drove home and we laughed and we cried
Now my dear friend has died
And I still can’t believe that you’re gone
No one that had known you could say that without you
the world would be better that way
I still can’t believe that you’re gone
You were so damn good thought you’d be the son
To get that first knock out round one
Now it’s all undone
Should that be the last time I ever would see your face
How did you ever leave such a space
Never thought that would be the last time
Life’s so strange and people do change
and you’re never sure what you’ll get
Life’s rearranged now that you took that train
but I thank my stars that we met
You still said I was the best kept secret of anyone you knew
I wasn’t sure
but I thought that the only one who could see me was you
This poem is about the joy of music and the way it connects to our lives in a personal way. A song can just take hold of us and make everything else go away. Our poet, Sue was a brilliant musician who always lived with a song on her lips and a beat in her step.
The Picture
I worked to create a mood of joy and rhythm in this picture, much the same way a favourite song can take over our feelings and lift our spirits.
Sorry this months post is so gloomy, but it’s been that kind of a month. This poem made me think about how short life is. It reminded me of the loss of loved ones, including the poet who wrote these words. How they simply fade away.
The Poem
The message I heard when I read this poem is that lives are lived; accomplishments and fortunes are made, but in the end, everything including us, will simply fade away. There are many layers of messages here, but I think the most optimistic is that our lives are part of the whole. The next generation will carry on.
Simply Fade Away
Rhythmic bass plays in my head
Should I sit back or now rejoice
Find the light in my new voice, or
Simply fade away
Philosophers so rank and file
None of them sit on the green mile
Find the peace left for a while, or
Simply fade away
Praise the sun and Holy Ghost
Cause you win if you have the most
What have we seen in all our years
We simply fade away
Generations come and go and life still has its ebb and flow
What will tomorrow really bring Armageddon or ides of spring
All that we touch and all we see is not what life will ever be
Because we are a part; not whole, the world is as time unfolds
The choice is you and it is me but God is still a mystery, to
