the experience of what is left

"I'm fascinated with the quality of light and the spatial immensity the ocean possesses. I have an enormous reverence for feeling so small in the presence of something so vast, where perspective, scale, time and distance momentarily become intangible. My photographs contemplate that condition, and through their reductive nature, suggest a formalized landscape we rarely see. The glory lies not in the act of this removal or reduction, but in the experience of what is left - sublime experience located in ordinary space: a slowly moving sky, the sun moving across a boulders surface or sea foam swirling around a pylon."


this guy's work is phenomenal in that it really seems to connect with & evoke freud's nirvana principal(different from thanatos & eros). freud didn't really follow up on his assertion of the individual's impulse to reduce all tensions &, actually, finally did fold it into thanatos(the death instinct). the idea of nirvana has always been misunderstood in the west, esp by the germans, & was never meant to signify non-existence. it is simply achieving a mental state that is desire-free. the Buddha taught:" ... if you perceive things truly, you will become free from attachment, separated from them, you will indeed be liberated. I have well crossed the watery waste of existence. I abide in bliss, having transcended suffering, therefore I am devoid of unending desire, I have eliminated attachment and gained Liberation [moksha]. There is no old age, sickness or death for me, my life is forever without end. I proceed burning bright like a flame. You must not think that I shall cease to exist. Consider the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] to be like [Mount] Sumeru: though I shall pass into Nirvana here [i.e. physically die], that supreme bliss is my true nature [dharmata]." (Tibetan version, translated by Stephen Hodge, quoted in Buddha-Self, by Dr. Tony Page, Nirvana Publications, London, 2003, p. 27).

burdeny's shots seem to visually give us a another version of the Buddha's mahaparinirvana sutra. the tensions within each picture seem arrested, relaxed, or dispelled. i'm allowed to take away from the experience only what i'm left with: a capacious solitude w/o my intrusive presence.

entropic melodies

"The word "entropy" refers to the state of natural decay displayed by the three dilapidated buildings that are the subject of this tonal poem. The images were all captured during two recent rapid "bursts" of picture taking over the span of about two hours each on two separate occasions. The "mystery" refers to how I was inexplicably "driven" (unconsciously, as though possessed by an inner mission) to find "old/abandoned" buildings. I drove 50 and 75 miles, respectively, in search of these buildings; and I did not consciously find them. It was only after my conscious mind decided to turn back home at the next exit (coincidentally, both times this happened at the exit toward "Warrenton" (Northern VA); on Route 66 the first time and along Interstate 95, the second), that I (or rather my inner "eye") caught sight of the buildings, certain elements of which are shown below. The deeper mystery is how, despite their profound state of ruin, they are all somehow palpably, and powerfully, alive! The typically clean, chiseled forms and lines of "new" modern buildings are, by comparison, sterile and devoid of the life that permeates, and radiates from, these older living structures."


it's probably not a good idea to let artists spend too much time reading science. otherwise, you get statements like the one above. for the most part, artists are the last folks who need to be talking about what they're doing. most of the time, they don't know themselves.

this guy's series of decayed buildings appealed to me. i remember walking around in the ruins of the tiki motel as it was being razed. i did the same when the capri motel came down too. what i found interesting was gauging the degree in decay of my memories juxtaposed to the ruins of site specific memory origins. there's that scene in a nick ray film w/robert mitchum, the lusty men, where mitchum returns to his family farm, now in ruins. he slides up under the porch & finds the key to the front door just where he'd left it years ago. that scene, & the whole film, is a deeply melancholic meditation on home & loss & retrieval. these buildings resemble that scene(also shot in b/w).

this whole series strikes me as melancholic as opposed to mournful. freud drew the distinction but it revolves mainly around issues that have either been repressed or sublimated. sublimation is a good thing; repression, not so much. there's a strong scent of thanatos(the death instinct)in these pictures. what i see here is uncontained loss & the pull of decay. the professional framing doesn't relieve the impulse towards decay. the black & white either/or presents us w/no resolution.

standing in the ruins of the tiki motel, i felt the tide of time pulling everything i'd experienced there out to sea. looking at these pictures, i'm not sure i feel the inexorable action of time. i don't think i feel anything but what i see is decay & ruin w/o its humanity & that's really where all that counts.

gee's bend ageless modern art

i seem to remember holly doing an independent study project on this kind of thing when she was at st. andrews college in laurinburg north carolina. this site is devoted to various aspects of the art making. beyond anthropological considerations & the painstaking craftsmanship, these are beautiful & carefully composed colors. i see malevich & mondrian &, unsurprisingly, african art here.

oddly enough, gee's bend alabama is also known as boykin alabama. boykin was bobo's middle name that i tried to keep from everyone(i have really no idea why)& that was ultimately found out by mike through his nefarious connections at the escambia health dept. gee's bend, aka boykin, is an african-american community in mid-lower southern alabama. gee, i wonder if i sensed there might be some tar in the woodpile? god knows, the jones family had it's little secrets.

ANNA AKHMATOVA b. JUNE 23rd 1889

"I learned how faces fall,

How terror darts from under eyelids,

How suffering traces lines

Of stiff cuneiform on cheeks,

How locks of ashen-blonde or black

Turn silver suddenly,

Smiles fade on submissive lips

And fear trembles in a dry laugh.

And I pray not for myself alone,

But for all those who stood there with me

In cruel cold, and in July’s heat,

At that blind, red wall."



the suffering of russian artists under stalin is something that really hasn't been fully exposed. if they were allowed to live, most couldn't be published. most died or had loved ones that died. i remember david schatz, a russian professor at new college who taught seminars in gogol & modern russian literary theory, said the poets ended up coding their poems(like the gay decadent poets of the fin de siecle)so that they could still criticize stalin w/o anyone one but the ones in the know realizing it.

akhmatova outlived stalin & saw her poems read & praised worldwide. that didn't happen very often.

"i may not have a lot to give but what i've got i'll give to you"

i have to say i've got mixed feelings about this whole deal. i KNOW if it were me or a loved one, i'd be doing whatever i can to get things fixed. however, i would be a self deceiving asswipe if i didn't think long & hard about the questions raised in this article. the rich in this country get a pretty good deal & the american cult of personality opens lots of doors too. i could give a fart for the apple shareholders or the apple worshippers. this is about a whole lot more that dollars & cents or girlish infatuations. i wish the guy well. i wish the 16,000 people ahead of him on the list well too. if money can't buy you happiness or love, it sure seems to work in the organ business.

ANN'S MONDAY DINNER & TUESDAY LUNCH

hickory grilled leg of lamb & slaw w/tequila cilantro dressing, avocado, roasted poblano & red & yellow peppers w/toasted pepitas(pumpkin seeds).



NORTH CAROLINA BBQ:
hickory grilled onglet(hanger steak)sandwich w/slaw & bbq sauce.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON b.JUNE 22nd 1936

this is for ann-marie. she probably didn't know her object of desire was born today. he's 73yo today & he's been on the other side of both his careers(music & film)for years now. i can't say he ever did anything for me as a film star(maybe in the infamous bomb, heaven's gate)but kris has written a pocketful of great songs, some actually redefining WHAT a songwriter could write about. his last album, this old road, wasn't too bad either.

just so we don't lose sight of the fact that he's been up & down in his career:



probably a lowpoint of two careers, kris & sam(ali macgraw never really was riding too high).