from HUMAN / NATURE
Stephen Ratcliffe

     

7.26

horizontal width of sunlit white cloud to the right of still

dark triangular peak in left corner, tree-lined green ridge

below it, sound of birds in foreground

                                         art critic noting

"portraits show potential sitters how to pose," therefore

"maybe considered part of the history of manners"

                                                    woman

across table recalling the cross-eyed man in a restaurant,

the drunk man calling out "Molly, has enough time gone by

that I can have another drink"

                                  upturned curve of ridge

below grey-white cloud in right corner, blinding silver

circle of sun in pale blue-white sky to the left of it

 

 

 

7.27

silver circle of sun rising through blue-white sky in lower

left corner, backlit white cloud across top of still dark

triangular peak below it, pale blue sky overhead

                                                   Hans

Hoffman claiming "the essence of the picture plane is

flatness," which "is synonymous with two-dimensionality"

 

Meyer Shapiro calling "non-mimetic elements of the picture"

"sign-bearing matter, the image-substance of inked or painted

lines," which isn't the same as "the represented object"

                                                           angle

of grey-white cloud slanting across triangular peak on the left,

backlit plane of bright white clouds in pale blue sky above it

 

 

 

7.28

grey light coming into sky through vertical lines of trees

in upper right corner, sound of stream in left foreground,

birds calling back and forth across from it

                                              Eco noting

in sentences "referring to an actual state of the world,

what happens at the source is the so-called 'referent'"

 

Vasari claiming that when Leonardo was painting Mona Lisa, 

"he engaged people to play and sing," planning to "remove 

that melancholy which painting usually gives to portraits"

 

bright white cloud to the left of backlit triangular peak 

above ridge in the left corner, emptiness of sky overhead

 

 

 

7.29

angle of still dark tree-lined ridge slanting to the left

in lower left corner, cloudless blue-white sky above it,

sunlight moving across shadowed green ridge beyond it

 

man in white tee-shirt waking from dream of ex-wife

opening her door, lunging toward crotch to bite off penis

 

Coleridge telling his older brother George "I have sent you

a sermon metamorphosed by vamping, transposition etc," adding

"if you like it I can send you two more of the same kidney"

 

bright green top of pine against blue sky in upper left

foreground, sunlit whiteness of moth flitting across it

 

 

 

7.30

small pink clouds in blue whiteness of sky above still dark

ridge in right corner, pink-orange light on the ridge next

to it, sound of birds chirping in left foreground

                                                    woman

at gas station in Victor wanting to put air in her tires,

whose baby in back seat knows how to say 'backpack'"

                                                       Ed

Sullivan announcing "here is Elvis Presley," Elvis singing

"there will be peace in the valley for me," Dylan adding "I

met a young girl she gave me a rainbow"

                                           sunlit green slope

of ridge slanting to the right below bright blue sky in upper

right corner, lines of still dark trees in foreground below it

 

 

 

7.31

pink-orange light in sky behind still dark triangular peak

in left corner, line of snow on ridge in foreground across

from it, sound of stream rising from canyon below it

                                                       man

from Wisconsin recalling seeing 25 species of hummingbirds

in Ecuador, the Amazon equal to next eight rivers combined

 

Coleridge wanting Pantisocracy to emigrate to America, eye-

witness calling Susquehannah "a river about a half a mile

broad, running at the foot of bold and steep mountains"

 

sunlit green ridge slanting up to the right below blue-

white sky, edge of the still dark ridge across from it

 

 

 

8.1

first pink light on plane of ridge below pale blue-white

sky in lower right corner, vertical line of still dark tree

below it, bird chirping across from it

                                         man on right thinking

of "verisimilitude in representation," Renaissance perspective

a quest for "fully objective equivalent of a 'natural vision'"

 

naked man leaning back against a hot speckled granite rock,

sound of sunlit silver water pouring across rock in left

foreground, body of fish wriggling across rock below it

 

blinding circle of sun rising into blue whiteness of sky

in left corner, backlit triangular peak to the left of it

 

 

 

8.2

triangular white patch of snow on plane of ridge in upper

right corner, pink-white cloud in pale blue whiteness of sky

across from it, sound of stream rising from foreground below it

 

woman on left noting the "attentive eye" of seventeenth century 

Dutch painting, which "treats everything as a visible surface"

 

Lacan thinking about "preexistence of the seen of the given

to be seen," claiming "I see only from one point, but in my

existence I am looked at from all sides"

                                           thin white plane

of clouds in pale blue whiteness of sky above peak in upper

left corner, white line of jet trail moving across below it

 

 

 

8.3

first grey light coming into the sky above still dark ridge

in left corner, darker grey rain clouds above ridge across

from it, birds calling back and forth in right foreground

 

ex-Idaho cop recalling pulling over his brother for speeding,

explaining "I'm not your brother I'm the police"

                                                   Coleridge

telling the man who would become his brother-in-law "we were

standing at the Window, then darted into my mind the Dread,

that you were meditating a Separation"

                                         bright underside

of white cloud in blue whiteness of sky in right corner,

tree-lined top of ridge slanting to the left below it

 

 

 

8.4

circular blue opening in grey-whiteness of clouds in right

corner, upturned curve of tree-lined ridge below it, crow

flapping across right foreground

                                   woman on phone noting

"days seem far away though they just happened, poems put

them back in your hand and yourself into them as memory can't"

 

man in driver's seat of red truck claiming that "everything

we did was preparation," man in passenger seat noting "no,

everything we did was present tense"

                                       bright whiteness

of grey rain cloud moving to the left across triangular

peak in upper right corner, sunlight hitting against it

//   Advance   //