milkweed

winter flowers viii.

"Those who do not see the flower are no different from barbarians, and those who do not imagine the moon are akin to beasts. Leave barbarians and beasts behind; follow the ways of the universe [nature] and return to nature."  Basho, from Japanese Aesthetics and Culture: A Reader, edited by Nancy G. Hume

                                               glads

deciding what and where colour is

winter flowers vii.

                                               glads

“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” John Berger quoting Cezanne.

 

deciding what and where colour is

winter flowers vi.

"The effect of color has real power....So much power that, in certain lights, it seems to become a substance. Once when I found myself in the chapel, I saw on the ground a red of such materiality that I had the feeling that the color was not the effect of light falling through the window, but that it belonged to some substance. This impression was reinforced by a particular circumstance: on the floor in front of me there was some sand in a little pile that the red was resting on. That gave me the effect of red powder so magnificent that I have never seen the like in my life." Matisse

                                               glads

deciding what and where colour is

Red Thought within a Gladiolus Blossom by James Owens

--after a photograph by erin wilson

The image is a garden inside the garden.

Eros as shimmer
as blood unfurls
through the wall of this wound
that opens the air like a sex.

The strokes of her looking
breathe
the petals to further opening and opening
and un-
fold
membrane contour texture.
Different wet reds shine.

All this from dirt and sun and water
dust the flower has healed
sepal
ovule
anthers laden dark
nudge of a cell upward
any touch would soft to bursting
and scatter sperm
inside the four chambers of the stone.

winter flowers v.

"Thinking about color abstractly hasn't done me any good." Frank Stella

                                                                                                                                  glads

deciding what and where colour is