stepping into the fire.
burning up by riikka sormunen.
i've started to paint work for a show that has been a year in the making, a conversation of images and text, a divinatory process/ experience / experiment. you may have caught whispers of this before, as this show was set to go on several times before and had always been pushed back, but now will wash ashore here in philly in august. painting in the summer is my absolute favorite. the light lasts longer. everything feels lazy yet urgent. i'm always hot and expedient. turmoil and sleep. endless research & the purging. & so it begins!
xo
the kiss anne sexton
my mouth blooms like a cut.
i've been wronged all year, tedious
nights, nothing but rough elbows in them
and delicate boxes of kleenex calling crybaby
crybaby , you fool !
before today my body was useless.
now it's tearing at its square corners.
it's tearing old mary's garments off, knot by knot
and see -- now it's shot full of these electric bolts.
zing! a resurrection!
once it was a boat, quite wooden
and with no business, no salt water under it
and in need of some paint. It was no more
than a group of boards. but you hoisted her, rigged her.
she's been elected.
my nerves are turned on. i hear them like
musical instruments. where there was silence
the drums, the strings are incurably playing. you did this.
pure genius at work. darling, the composer has stepped
into fire.
Category Article Anne Sexton, inspiration, riikka sormunen, summer heat
