SOWING LIGHTNING
Seize
Bolts of lightning from the sky
And plant them in fields of life.
They will grow like tender sprouts of fire.
Charge somber thoughts
With unexpected flash,
You, my lightning in the soil!
― Visar Zhiti, The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry
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This is a newer painting that I’ve been looking at for a while now here in the studio. With its many lightning bolts, it’s obviously different from most of my work even though most of it falls in line with the body of my work.
Most of my considerations have to do with whether I feel there is more to be done on this piece. That’s not uncommon when a new element is added. It takes time for me to accept this new thing being interjected into my quiet little world.
I guess that can be said for most new things.
I can see where a lot of people who know my work might have mixed feelings about this piece that seems so much like an anomaly. It has a feeling of an electrical shock in it, shiny and sharp and harsh. If you’ve ever been zapped by a strong jolt of electricity, you know what I mean.
I know that feeling.
But for now, I continue to consider this painting. It may change in some way before it ever sees the outer world again.
Or may be not. For now, I am calling it Sowing Lightning after the poem at the top from the Albanian poet Visar Zhiti. The idea of lightning planting itself in the earth with each strike is an intriguing one.
This piece has an “after-image-y” feel to me what with the house roof being blue instead of red and because so much of the palette is blues and greens instead of your usual reds and oranges. It gives me the same feel you get when there is a really bright flash of lightning that stuns your eyes with the intensity of the light and obscures detail. This painting is at the point where your eyes are recovering from the brightness shock and you are moving into the afterimage and can pick up detail again. But, because it’s an afterimage, all the colors are reversed. After this painting would come the part where the afterimage fades back into real colors as your vision returns to normal.
I hadn’t thought of it in those terms but it makes great sense. Hmm, something to think about…
Wonderful motif. I’m sure you can develop it in wonderful ways across different paintings.
Thanks so much. It’s definitely something to work on.
It’s different from much of your work, but it’s different in the same way that a violent thunderstorm differs from a string of placid days. The light changes, the air grows electric, and everything familiar takes on an odd appearance. Animals grow restless, and there’s an air of anticipation — something is going to happen, but what?
There’s a reason people are fascinated by lightning, and I think you’ve captured some of that feeling.