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Events
Stay tuned for information on the upcoming 2010-2011 Artsmith series of events. In the meantime, enjoy these samples of the various arts featured at the closing of Janet Madill and Mary Ellen Hogle's combined show at the Orcas Center.
The following poem by Jennifer Brennock is told from the point of view of the art pieces in Jan Madill and Mary Ellen Hogle’s painting and sculpture show, “Embracing It All, Mostly,” featured at Orcas Center in June 2010. Jennifer read “embrace” at the closing celebration of the show on Sunday, June 27.
embrace by jennifer brennock
i bid you—touch me
make on me a permanent mark
let my bronze show your human hands have been here
let me age easily with your use like a soft leather under repeated stroke
the mere passage of time and your fingerprints become a vow upon my crown
where you’ve pet me lazily—absently—as if i were some kind of guarantee
let me darken
let me change
make me more lovely with use
and knowing
and the passing of this season into the next
my veins protrude with thick matter and super focus
idea and work and function grow my arteries fat
there is peace here
but a roiling inner life in my synapses too
this stimulation is too much!
so it takes rest in my dreams
where the unknown still comes though unbidden
it begs you: touch me—feel my textures—let me surprise you with my unknowns
in this dream there appears a moon
and it makes an untimely day
banishing shadow and conjuring what might be a memory
but I can’t be sure
my dreams know more than I do waking
come the fleeting images of people we once knew
and a black hole
and a sink hole
dropping through to parts unknown
and an eyeball!
is it mine?
will it show me what you see when you look into my eyes?
will it show me what you saw the first time it wasn’t casual?
when you look you see my details
and i declare: take me to the vein of myself!
i’ll let you in
to the deepest of this body and its mystery
these electrical charges forge their way
water dancing through the current
wondering if they’ve lost the trail
or if they are pioneer
the first to make it to the heart of the matter
never doubting if there is one
never pausing to think this search might have no prize
never thinking that perhaps solitude is really all there is to find
and we’ve already got that
all else- the impossibility
but here comes a man with kind eyes and wisdom
and
he’s watching children in the schoolyard
in his limbs he remembers what it felt like to play
but he’s forgotten how to do it
he’s observer now
he knows this
for him there is no longer a search
these are the sea dances—river songs—and night lullabies into perpetua
this certainty is our comfort
knowing it will never end is what makes us believe in peace
like some believe in god
with no need of evidence
my name is earth and i have a seat for you
i have a small place for you to keep something safe
save it from oblivion
just in case the dances do end
just in case we’re wrong about everything we’ve already embraced
what will you place here with me?
in this bowl—this basin—this vessel—this gift of safe place?
will it be what you most prize?
or will it be what you don’t want found out?
i will continue to dance while i am poured—cast—fired and made permanent
so you can have the safe place
these holes are gifts of air
a gift of nothing—of space—of pause—is worth more to you than handfuls of rubies and gold
you may embrace them
but you can’t carry them with you
you can’t zip them up and label the baggie with your sharpie: “proof”
or
“we were right about it all”
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