Below are the poems I interpreted/illustrated as well as my commentary on the reasons I chose them or what brought me to the final image you see.
Sky Painter, by Michael C. Mulvaney, 1997
Do you lay your head upon His breast
When you see the setting sun?
Do the rays that pierce departing clouds
Bring warmth where there was none?
Does the night breeze whisper to your heart
That He’s still in control?
Do you ever pause to see this scene unfold?
When a gray sky weeps, releasing rain
Does His mercy wash your sould?
And instead of gloom you feel the joy of
once more being whole
Then in winter chill the pearl gray sky
Is a blanket, soft and warm
In this fallen world, He shelters us from harm
SkyPainter, show me the beauty of y ourworks
You’re the Artist and the Architect of all the
Universe
And when my blind eyes fail to see your
hand in everything,
Please hold me while you teach me how to see.
In the velvet of a clear night sky
His jewelry displayed
Hinting of perfection that mere diamonds cannot claim
And even when the clouds obscure
This vision from His throne
He sees us still, He will not leave us alone
When storm skies roll and thunder claps
A violence is revealed but despite these wars we never see
His protection never fails
And the glorious blue of summer noon
Confirms yet once again
That His banner ever over me
Is a love that never ends
In that moment just before the dawn
As your first words speak His Name
See the single spark of day’s first light
Ignite the sky to flame
Once again we know new mercies
Once again, the promise learned -
through skies like these He one day will return
Sky Painter, show me the beauty of your works
You’re the Artist and the Architect of all the universe
And when my blind eyes fail to see your hand in everything,
Please hold me while you teach me how to see.
The Desert, by W.H. Auden
In the desert of the heart,
Let the healing start
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man to praise
Stop Being so Religious, from “The Gift”
versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky
Stop Being So Religious
What do sad people have in common?
It seems they have all built a shrine to the past and often go there and do a strange wail and worship.
What is the beginning of Happiness?
It is to stop being so religious like that.
Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Commentary of photographs
Sky Painter, by Michael C. Mulvaney, 1997
This series was created over a 24 hour period right here in Lawrence. My friend Mike Mulvaney, whom I also play in a band with and every Sunday at church submitted this to me when I was asking for poetry that people would like to see illustrated or interpreted for this show.
Over the span of the 24 hours that transpired was a full moon as well which I left out but can be see on my blog and blazing sunset and fiery sunrise.
This is the kind of poem that is and will probably remain as a long term project for me as it speaks of the seasons and the beauty of creation. To someone like myself, I see landscapes as an obvious display of God’s unspeakable ability, sense of majesty and because of this, the reality and grace of his presence and love is made known simply by opening my eyes.
The Desert was a poem I discovered while trying to find poetry that I identified with. The cactus is in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson, Az. I like this image as an interpretation because a cactus symbolizes the desert (obviously) and hard times, but the color of the sky and illumination of the Saguaro symbolizes hope, that life lived in light is a life lived in freedom.
Which leads me to the poem by Hafiz, and Ladinsky, Stop Being so Religious. Much like The Desert, this really is a personal image for me and in the course of my life over the past couple years I’ve learned that I and well, frankly, a lot of people whether they realize it or not, tend to make a shrine towards hurts and pain. I really like the matter of fact voicing of this poem and it spoke to me making me want to end it with, Love is the key, so I naturally had to find a skeleton key which symbolizes, skeletons in our closets, and I found one with a heart at the end and I just knew it was made for this. Then I managed to locate some skeleton key lock openings to further illustrate that love is the key. That forgiveness unlocks the pain, the hurts, the shrines of unhappiness. So stop being so religious!
The final poem I wanted to interpret is Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. Thank you to Kim Hage for this suggestion as I’m most proud of this. While these aren’t necessarily the most beautiful photos, that is exactly the point of this series.
When Carroll wrote this poem, it was sort of as a commentary and criticism of Poets and those that wanted to appear as though they were authorities of literature and especially poetry.
Much like photography now, apparently, poetry was held with esteem but it was also something that everyone was attempting. With cell phones being so prevalent in every part of our lives, the camera part of the cell phone has almost singlehandedly replaced and increased the appetite for photography. Fortunately or not, (I’m not sure which) we have accepted cell phone photos as quality photos, much like Jabberwocky was accepted as a brilliant poem. Carroll wrote it to stand for nothing and yet it stands to this day. So, cell photography is much the same and I took over 600 photos from various cell phones I’ve had over the past couple years and used them to composite these photos. One is an image of me, the other 3 are photos of downtown Indianapolis taken from the 23rd floor of the AUL building.
My travel photography I call “Side of the Road Photo Show” as I almost always see photos that I want to take while traveling. Minor White had a rule that he used often which was he would set out on the road with the radio on. Every third song he’d just stop and get out and start taking photos. Sometimes I do this. The majority of this showing has photos from a road trip I took with my parents over my birthday this year. They traveled from Nevada and we went all the way to Vermont. The only photo that isn’t from this trip is my windfarm photo from White County, IN. I wanted to photograph this place for over a year. The year before I was on my way to Chicago and it was a foggy morning, the sun was cutting through the fog and revealing this crop of windmills. I knew I would be back to shoot this place. 600 photos was the result and this is one of my favorite.
Photos available: All are sized at 16x20 framed and mounted on foam core. Archival pigment prints@ $150 except for the Windfarm GalleryWrap Canvas which is $300. Any image seen can also be made into the Gallery Wrap in any size larger than 11x14, contact me for more info and I can ship if not in the Indy area. Make checks payable to Diehl Photographic Arts. contact me @ diehlphotographicarts@gmail.com or call me @ 317.410.6666
Thank you!
Brian
