Definitive

Confidence is

the fear of failure

overcome

by intention and action.

Deja vu-

a memory of the future.

Something indistinct.

Yet distinct in an indescribable way.

Presence is a given

taken for granted

even when absent.

Forever and infinity

need time.

Now

never lasts long enough

to say what

It

Is.

Artwork credit: 'A woman pleating her hair', possibly La Cigale. Signed lower right: CAMILLE METRA, in Public domain c. 1890 via Wikimedia Commons.

Pastel 65 x 54 cm. (25 ½ x 21 ¼ in.)

Exhibited: Possibly the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895, no. 1528.

Camille Métra exhibited regularly at the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1891 to 1903, using her maiden name before 1895 and exhibiting as Hubbard-Métra after her second marriage. Métra was also a member of the Union of Women Painters and exhibited frequently at their annual exhibition between 1891 and 1911.

Although we know little of her biography, Métra’s extant work reveals a talented artist, working in a late Academic and Art Nouveau style. Active primarily as a pastellist, though also confident with oil painting, Métra seems to have focussed on arcadian subjects, often derived from literary and mythological sources. She was also active as a portraitist, particularly of children. After the death of her first husband in 1892, Métra married the French politician Gustave-Adolphe Hubbard, with the couple divorcing in 1904.

Signed with her maiden name, the present work likely predates Métra’s marriage in 1895. The pastel may be La Cigale, exhibited at the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894. Drawn from La Fontaine’s fable The Grasshopper and the Ant, the title alludes to the fate of one who (like a grasshopper) ‘sings all summer’ instead of preparing (like an ant) for the hardships of winter. By Métra’s time, La Cigale had become a metaphor for the beautiful bohème who lives with no thought for the future. A popular artistic subject in the late 19th century, La Cigale was typically depicted as a young brunette set against a verdant backdrop of foliage, usually with a musical instrument though not always so. Whatever the case, with her flowing tresses and emerging from a dense forest of vegetation, Métra’s young woman is an archetypal Art Nouveau subject.

It's a Cine

August evening at the drive in.

Early 80's, sky matching the push up

ice cream staining my cheeks.

Sweet strawberry sherbet sunset.

I am on the swings, the playground 

near the concessions and bathrooms

while the adults drink and smoke

In their cars, laughter, squeals, guitar solos and mustard.

Adjusting the speakers and seats, 

blankets and munchies.

And we all wait for darkness 

when the movies begin.

2 for 1-

I don't remember the titles

But that time and place-

a strong sense of it 

returns in brief flashes.

Like a meaningless memory-

but Now again

waiting for the dark 

and something entertaining to begin. 

Painting by Édouard Vuillard - Lulu, sur la balançoire dans le parc.jpg| Édouard Vuillard  Lulu, sur la balançoire dans le parc]Exécuté vers 1932 (in Public Domain).

Ebb and Flow

 

The seagull shrieking in the near distance

is the cry of my heart for the sea

I so long to be near once again.

The puffy slanted clouds are held

by magnetic tendrils I can almost feel

gently being pulled like a marionette

across the pure turquoise sky

with fingers tracing deep 

in the ocean current.

Sometimes, I like to close my eyes

and I can still smell the sea 

and its lusty yearning back for me. 

Painting by Peder Balke, 'Stormy Sea' c. 1870 Google Art Project via Wikimedia Commons. In Public Domain. 

Doom and Bloom

And we wake up 

to a new day,

the world crumbling around us.

We try to put the pieces together,

nothing makes sense-

or fits-

and yet everything

is, in a word-

Beautiful.

In such a way

the dappled sunlight,

a certain bird

lands,

a note to self

Becomes a warm smile. 

It has been a while.

Painting by Annie Pressland c. early 20th century Still life with red flowers and bowl' in Public domain.Annie Louisa Pressland (1862-1933), was a painter who studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, and exhibited between 1892 and 1923 at the Society of Women Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Baillie Gallery and London Salon, Birmingham, The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and Manchester City Art Gallery. A theme of her work, under commissions, was private gardens. She designed posters for the Underground Group in 1913, which are held in the collection of the London Transport Museum. Professionally she was referred to as 'Miss Pressland'. Born on 2 July 1862 at Brighton, she died on 23 March 1933 at East Grinstead. via Wikimedia Commons.

Depth

I walk beside myself

Not another parallel path

but obtusely, a shadow of a self.

I should have become

colored, defined, dimensional

instead of this plane person.

It all worked out for the best

I lived to see some 

karmic occurrences.

It was all just that-

for a time.

Evolution favors the fittest-

for now. 

We are still in the Goldilocks zone.

I thrive, though I know

the Precipice and the Fall

one step away.

I chose the 

Right foot

and move forward

knowing it is my best. 

I should be-

come satisfied

if nothing else. 

Artwork credit: Brush and black ink and gray wash, with graphite, on cream-wove paper 'Statue of the Madonna in the Mountains' c. 1804 by Caspar David Friedrich, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons in Public Domain.