Artistic Motivation - Heads of State

The Dissertation Series continues with an indoor and outdoor affair: Natural Artifice by Alice Maher at the Djanogly Art Gallery, Riverside - Nottingham, June 2007

Heads of state

The road sign says: No horse racing on the carriageway
A good job on that day - for you were well past racing
Your racing days were over
All your days were over

It was the first time that I had seen a glass and crystal coffin carriage
Horse drawn, groomed for the occasion
You would have liked the sign Road closed for a funeral procession
Hundreds, maybe thousands of well wishers
Stand back, make way, by notices they are instructed

The sun shone then as the sun shines now - outside the gallery
Inside, a casket: Lacrymatory - The Jerpoint kick-starts the memory
Of someone I never ever knew
Though I know now, my chasing days too are almost over
All of those days are almost over

Artistic Motivation - Enter

The dissertation Series continues, still in Belgium, now trying to reach my spiritual side, at the Lumière et Intériorité Exhibition featuring Pierre Deuse, in the Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule de Bruxelles, Brussels, May 2007...if only you could have heard the spine tingling singing during the blessing service

Enter

One more line, one more etched away corner
One more hour of darkness, one more morning to dawn
Take me to your dreamer, out of my imagination
Take me then redeemer, out beyond creation

One more - wait before the brushstroke
One more - wait before the breath
Take me as I seem
Take me freely, coming clean

Artistic Motivation - Beware

The Dissertation Series continues with a birthday celebration and a knife attack in the main square of Belgium's capital city; in and among the excitement a chance to take in and respond to the Ancient and Modern Exhibition featuring Various Artists at the Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, May 2007


Beware

Dubois, perhaps of De Beauvoir
Shadows; encounters that play with light
Travellers of the world unite as fragments
In the underground concrete departments

Be aware
Meet my friend; he is the one with the knife
Who desires, due to the affair with his wife
To end your life

Sad to have descended
The evening's gaiety upended
Anger lies beside the selfless bonds of consolation
As we delve into your darker nation

Ambient explanations to still the ruffled mind
Silent conversations to view the uneasy interior
Hazily ordained deportations cram the adventurer

Less plain
The particular exploitations to hustle
The all alone, after dark street walker

Artistic Motivation - On Leaving the Exhibition

The Dissertation Series joins the graduating art students with the Degree Show Open Exhibition featuring Various Artists on the BA (Hons) Fine Arts Course at the University of Lincoln, Greestone Center, Lindum Hill, Lincoln, May 2007


On leaving the exhibition

I strode up the Greestone steps
In the pouring rain
At the top I caught my breath

In the Cathedral Garden
I thought of the depth
And was perplexed

As before
On another ceremonious occasion

Opening drawers
Watching butterflies take to the sky

Artistic Motivation - Gaudier-Brzeska Line

The Dissertation Series continues with a response to the WE THE MODERNS Exhibition featuring Henri Gaudier-Brzeska at a fairly overcrowded Graves Art Gallery - Sheffield, April 2007


Gaudier-Brzeska Line

Cut it straight
Point out the detail
Turn the corner
Sharp
The war is upon us