Shitao

Buy for me the rain, my darling, buy for me the rain;
Buy for me the crystal pools that fall upon the plain.
And Iâ€ll buy for you a rainbow and a million pots of gold.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I am too old.

Buy for me the sun, my darling, buy for me the sun;
Buy for me the light that falls when day has just begun.
And Iâ€ll buy for you a shadow to protect you from the day.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I go away.

Buy for me the robin, darling, buy for me the wing;
Buy for me a sparrow, almost any flying thing.
And Iâ€ll buy for you a tree, my love, where a robinâ€s nest may grow.
Buy it for me now, babe, the years all hurry so.

I cannot buy you happiness, I cannot by you years;
I cannot buy you happiness, in place of all the tears.
But I can buy for you a gravestone, to lay behind your head.
Gravestones cheer the living, dear, theyâ€re no use to the dead.

-- Buy For Me The Rain- The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band- 1967

Two of the best colorists out of the 40s were Grace Hartigan and Helen Frankenthaler (standing)


For Grace, After A Party

You do not always know what I am feeling.
Last night in the warm spring air while I was
blazing my tirade against someone who doesn't
interest
me, it was love for you that set me
afire,

and isn't it odd? for in rooms full of
strangers my most tender feelings
writhe and
bear the fruit of screaming. Put out your hand,
isn't there
an ashtray, suddenly, there? beside
the bed? And someone you love enters the room
and says wouldn't
you like the eggs a little

different today?
And when they arrive they are
just plain scrambled eggs and the warm weather
is holding.

--Frank O'Hara

Jazz guitarist Jim Hall performs "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" with a trio consisting of Steve Swallow on bass and Walter Perkins on drums. This tune was Hall's feature on Art Farmer's "Live at the Half-Note" record and this footage is likely from a 1964 appearance of the Farmer quartet.

Six paintings from George Bellows. Certainly the best Ashcan colorist. But for my money, one of the best modernist in terms of torquing form against elevated color sculpting. The sculptor William Zorach (my personal hero as a watercolorist , though his wife was a better colorist) is the only cat who makes the form radiate more(apart from John Marin's sweet graphic antics for symbols). And that was because he kept tweaking his watercolors until he could no longer express efficiently a 3-dimensional form on a 2-dimensional surface. Bellows died in his mid-forties, sadly never taking his art effectively to the people. His very smart wife did so thru the venues offered at the time, and for a boy outta Ohio, you can't (I can't) sing his praises loud enuff. That's all probably my own antiquated p'toowee, but watch these whiskers sing........

The Look

Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.

--Sara Teasdale

The Group of Seven

In 1920, J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael, F.H. Varley and Frank Johnston officially formed this now famous group. These were painters bitten by the Canadian north who, for the first time, took on the task of painting the great power, scenery and spirit of their land.


Lawren Harris
...................................
My Hovel

The world before my eyes is wan and wasted, just like me.
The earth is decrepit, the sky stormy, all the grass withered.
No spring breeze even at this late date,
Just winter clouds swallowing up my tiny reed hut.


Lawren Harris
..............................
To Lady Mori with Deepest Gratitude and Thanks

The tree was barren of leaves but you brought a new spring.
Long green sprouts, verdant flowers, fresh promise.
Mori, if I ever forget my profound gratitude to you,
Let me burn in hell forever.


Lawren Harris
..................................
Along the roadside,
blossoming wild roses
in my horse's mouth


Lawren Harris
..................................
New Year's first snow -- ah --
just barely enough to tilt
the daffodil


Arthur Lismer
..............................
Crossing long fields,
frozen in its saddle,
my shadow creeps by


Edwin Holgate
........................
Returning to my native village after many years' absence:
Ill, I put up at a country inn and listen to the rain.
One robe, one bowl is all I have.
I light incense and strain to sit in meditation;
All night a steady drizzle outside the dark window --
Inside, poignant memories of these long years of pilgrimage.

Ah, Silly Pug, wert thou so Sore Afraid

by Queen Elizabeth I
Ah, silly Pug, wert thou so sore afraid?
Mourn not, my Wat, nor be thou so dismayed.
It passeth fickle Fortune's power and skill
To force my heart to think thee any ill.
No Fortune base, thou sayest, shall alter thee?
And may so blind a witch so conquer me?
No, no, my Pug, though Fortune were not blind,
Assure thyself she could not rule my mind.
Fortune, I know, sometimes doth conquer kings,
And rules and reigns on earth and earthly things,
But never think Fortune can bear the sway
If virtue watch, and will her not obey.
Ne chose I thee by fickle Fortune's rede,
Ne she shall force me alter with such speed
But if to try this mistress' jest with thee.
Pull up thy heart, suppress thy brackish tears,
Torment thee not, but put away thy fears.
Dead to all joys and living unto woe,
Slain quite by her that ne'er gave wise men blow,
Revive again and live without all dread,
The less afraid, the better thou shalt speed.

"The story on Chernobyl is of particular interest to me. I am originally from Ukraine and on some level I have witnessed the disaster from the very beginning. I would like to keep documenting the lives of people in that region, and hopefully I will get to see a re-settlement of the area when this region is deemed safe to inhabit." Dima Gavrysh to SLIDELUCK POTSHOW