2.5: four variations of the same mood, and an afterthought | Miguel Escobar (poetry) and Sinaida Wolf (visual art)
** 1
a promise to bring something home
something new,
something fitting
space exists
called patience
— the middle of the ocean is
not where anything
ends
the pleasant swell —
a consummate aphrodisiac
lapping on
hull
tattered map remnants with
points of departure many —
from
somewhere interior
what is loved is not hemmed in
nor subject to aging
nor quiet, nor still
what’s loved
is blossoming beyond belief
or beliefs —
vine-like and hurried
the least likely answer
demures
— the furthest premonitions
intrude
unannounced
shadows of a lone figure
promise to care —
birthed,
gaining significance
from well-placed light
& dripping
voluptuous drops
continuing
to hold on
drained of most meaning
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** 2
inside
an unclassified style of cloud
you may not have known to
look for
the truth — little more than mist,
it doesn’t run or even hide
it waits
to be asked
the right question
days
of grey, complicated
interference
be sure
— there is nothing new
under the sun, meaning ever
a genealogy,
but not that far back
a history
somewhat watered down
a waterfall future —
one of
recovering dreams
clouded by passion
and
ones now on trial
the first year it could be said
we go back
meaning iron thread
peeking out a clearing
in the clouds
mistaken for sunlight
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** 3
behind color, objects
underneath those, reasons
beyond explanations,
something like dreams
the shadow that grew
while no one watched
the thing laid bare
after so many chapters
— such comfort in numbers
the medium
sees certain senses dip in & out
when it’s all dry, the one remains
eternal —
one, next life fills a vacuum
with the rhythm of train tracks
and endless scenery
by and by
brush stroke
buys the next conversation
one for keeps
—
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** 4
within his head
she said the thing an intuition exists for
sound of a large coin hitting the floor
whirly birds in the sky
with no earthly use —
they’re tied to the single upward gaze
of each of a million
dreamers
the dream exists
to say
wake up
she is
comfortable talking to herself
on paper
— go ahead
the voice a tool
the ear an antenna
the mind a sieve
life is a lark
but seriously..
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Afterthought
the gun hanging on a wall
a living skyline —
gliding,
repeating — just often enough
to hypnotize
how both blow smoke
— both
stand in for
the stark and bleak of
culture’s evasion
society’s big time
biding time
& hallowed
the measure of fruit ripening —
with stopwatch
spin passage,
bid the good times something, anything
tilting the cut faces of a diamond
to catch light
all that we let stand in
for
breathing
the gun’s weight
having the nail cave
to gravity
of
a situation
—
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poetry, Miguel Escobar ©2018
Statement of Poetics – Miguel Escobar, June 2018
Mysterious as I might like these mysterious things to remain. . .
Robert M. Pirsig’s grand “metaphysics of quality,” as uncovered in his 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, together with the ghost of T.S. Eliot’s thought on the objective correlative in literature, how emotion is experienced in Art–both come to mind, and I believe work together, to explain my current writing process — a process of trying to discriminate and detect in, or craft into a verse object an artful taste. . . . Apply or merge that with the idea of experimentation in attempting to mimic styles of abstraction, impressionism, expressionism, surrealism — how those things might manifest in language and emanate outwards; this inside a stream of consciousness smattered with subconscious allusion or reference, even if it is only in the later discovery. . . . Is this how you come close to being able to objectify something as inherently subjective as this? Some kind of mist, smoke or invisible hand. . .
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Artist Statement – Sinaida Wolf, July 2018
A rough sketch of the artist’s thoughts on her process, as described to the poet, from a very recent conversation.
The main artistic process I follow is one of layering. With digital work, as compared with painting alone, there seems to develop and manifest more of an element of surprise during the process of creation. Layers themselves are each highly individual expressions, and a relationship develops with each, between it and the artist. The surprise is felt as a sense of wonder at something new emerging from the process of layering. Patience can be said to be very much at work, as meaning is something that must be awaited, before then being able to follow or further develop that meaning, once it becomes clear enough. Concrete expression of the overall meaning is often revealed in the creation of a title or the inclusion of poetry.
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Osmosis: Regarding the Influence of Sinaida Wolf’s Art on Mine – Miguel Escobar
I feel very happy and honored to share this space with Sinaida Wolf, my very close artist friend from Germany, whose works have been an influence on my art life for something over two years now. I want to share a few thoughts about that influence, since the context may be of interest when the reader is taking in and experiencing our works here.
The art of writing, like all art, stems and flows from mysterious places inside us, and staying true to that mystery, by trying to retain and reflect it in one’s art, is natural to some of us, even if it has taken a lifetime of work, or some part of it, to uncover some knowledge of that as a kind of truth, about the muse, and its process.
There has been only one work of Sinaida’s art that by itself ever moved me to write something specific, and it was, I think, because I imagined or discerned the piece of art as containing a gift. I felt moved to reflect on the piece directly, by creating a little story, as a poem, about an unusual gift being given directly to me. Interestingly, that poem has never been finished, and something about it has remained elusive to me, which I suspect is wrapped up in my own perfectionism. That particular work of hers that I associate thematically with a gift is one of the pieces I selected to include here, though my unfinished poem is not.
I mention this rather isolated artistic incident to underline the fact that the main influence her art has had on me, or mine, seems to be more of an osmosis — one of learning to work, give voice to, and trust the workings and expressions of the subconscious.
At some level, knowledge of Sinaida’s other life as a professor of art therapy, and the connection that has with psychology, made me seriously consider whether there was true, personal meaning to be searched for inside her works. Then, extrapolating that to my own writing, considering whether the same could be done with words — the creation of meaning, but by consciously trying to create and retain an abstract and impressionistic aura that might exude enigma, or mystery, and both invite and defy the discovery of meaning.
More recently I’ve begun to think, or realize, that if parts of one’s life, or psyche, needs to remain hidden, and yet there is a tension that develops because there is a natural desire to want to be open and share, then subconscious expression is a solution, and one’s art then acts as a bridge.
These particular rivers and the bridges over them operate at one level, but there is also the level of the work that is towards the perfecting of the artistic object, and operating at that level is more conscious, and in the thick of things. Both levels work in tandem as the process of creation, and may be a parallel to the kind of layering Sinaida describes as being the main feature of her artistic process.
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Biographical Notes – Miguel Escobar
Miguel Escobar’s writing has appeared on-line at Luciole Press, Diaphanous Press Fall 2017 Issue, on Facebook since late 2015, in the WordPress blog community, and on MySpace circa 2007-2008. He resides in the northern California city of Sacramento, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers.
Miguel Escobar on facebook
email: [email protected]
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Biographical notes – Sinaida Wolf
Sinaida Wolf (her artist name), German artist, studied art at the University Of Arts, Ottersberg, Germany. She has participated in various exhibitions in Germany and abroad, the last being a group exhibition: the Seoul, Korea International Photo Festival 2018, which ran 5/31 through 6/6/2018. In her other profession, she works as a professor of art therapy in Germany, teaching digital art and art therapy. She also teaches abroad in Malaysia, China and the Philippines.
Sinaida Wolf on facebook
Sinaida Wolf on Instagram
Email: [email protected]