#P12: After Mauve

The past week I made this small landscape which is based on the beautiful painting – “Crossing the Heath” by Anton Mauve (Dutch painter, 1838-1888). As you will see when you compere the two, I was more after creating the same mood than trying to make an exact copy. I also removed the human figure.

I worried for a moment about stemming my creative voice by basing my work on that of an earlier painter, but then remembered something Robert Henri had said:

ORIGINALITY: Don’t worry about your originality. 
You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. 
It will stick to you and show you up for better or 
worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.

Henri, Robert. The Art Spirit (p. 76). 
Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

I have recently started reading the poetry of Tony Hoagland, and it blows my mind. Here is the last part of one of his poems “Crazy Motherfucker Weather”:

Am I entering the season of tantrums and denunciations?
My crazy motherfucker weather? 
Will I be yelling at strangers on the plane,
 
begging the radio for mercy, 
hammering the video rental machine 
to get my money back? 

Knowing it a sin to waste 
even a smidgen of this life 
under the blue authentic glory of the sky; 

wondering whether a third choice exists 
between resignation and 
going around the bend— 

Yet still the wild imperative of self: 
the sobbing sense that one has not been loved; 
the absolute demand for nothing less 

than transformation; 
the flaring force of this thing we call identity 
as if it were a message, a burning coal 

one carries in one’s mouth for sixty years, 
for delivery 
to whom, exactly; to where?

Hoagland, Tony. Application for Release from the Dream: Poems 
(Kindle Locations 283-296). Graywolf Press. Kindle Edition.

I hope you are happy and content. Thanks for stopping by my blog.