As we witness a rare alignment of the planets over the next month, we are reminded of the harmonious patterns that
connect the cosmos and the earth. It's not a far reach to know that this connectedness extends to all beings. Especially now, it's a good time to remember that. As a media commentator likes to say, We are all in this together. (-Joyce Vance.)
What does a sparrow see from its eye? When it looks to the night sky, what nebulae, constellations, or planets does it consider? Two butterfly wings are present here, one named the peacock. Their spots rhyme with the denizens of the sky: stars, constellations, and transforming nebulae. This painting imagines a certain kind of alignment, one that includes patterns at large in the sky, as well as those found on smaller creatures of the air.
The 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸'𝘴 𝘌𝘺𝘦 paintings hail from a suite of work created as part of a collaboration with composer Carl MautsBy, Eye Of The Sparrow.
The project debuted on Martin Luther King Day at Saint Bartholomew's church, NYC, 2006.
The dome of the night sky vexes our brains; beautiful beyond belief but bound with cement blocks of time. This poem takes us into a consideration of how to absolve the unreachable vastness that visits us nightly.
“Neanderthal Dig” byDon McKay
1.
“When we dug up thegrave
we found a child’s bones
laid on a great swan’s wing.
They had never been, we thought,
the sharpest flints in the cave,
with thick skulls evolving toward NFL
helmets. We’d applied their name
(from Neander Vale, site
of the first remains we found)
to racists, sexists, and dull
bureaucrats.
“Now we stood abashed,
trespassers on grief, thoroughly sapiens
with artful implements and wit.
What would it be like to be so stricken,
with few words to call on heaven, hell,
hope, grief? And what
sharp words might we, the clever cousins,
muster for the child who one
day watched a Mute Swan (wingspan:
five feet) lift from the river in two white
swipes of Paleolithic air?
2.
“What manner ofwreath
might honour this death?
Some wing of language
entering earth?
Wherever you’re gone
may your spirit wander
wild as a swan
in the Vale of Neander.”
