A New Writing Home Substack
I'm writing on Substack now. If you're here for the words, follow along there. I will keep the Blog portion of my website to keep everyone informed about art happenings and newsletter essays.
From Beyond the Sea In the winding narrow streets near one piazza or another, an art store, dimly lit its dusty shelves filled with thick glass jars – a candy store for painters with offerings of pigments purloined earth – raw umber, yellow ochre heavy metals – lead white, cadmium yellow this one, pulverized gemstone that one, so deadly a bacteria it turned Adriatic soil blood red. Zecchi, I went there as if on pilgrimage and bought these precious powders. Twenty years later, and I haven’t made a single brushstroke. The colors captive in their original plastic bags with tared weights written in flowing, Florentine script. I could grind pigment into a finer dust with any number of mortars and pestles I’ve collected this one hewn from marble, that one, carved from volcanic rock. I know to separate egg yolk from white, pass yolk from palm to palm to dry it then puncture its skin with my needle and let the viscous yellow drain from egg sac. I could mix yolk with sangue di drago, the preserved red tears of the dragon tree pair purest color with egg and paint the walls. Like cook, chemist, sorcerer, alchemist my materials are simple, capable like dough, like gold. Ultramarine Blue – I bought the smallest vial. I still have it. If I opened it, I might proceed to cover everything in sight with a blue from beyond the sea.