Histories Past and Present

A scroll is a roll of parchment or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of transmitting information or using as a decoration. Scrolls were the first form of record keeping. They were also used in recording history and literature before the bound book.

Come said the muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted;
Sing me the universal. Walt Whitman

Photo by Werner Bischof, from JAPAN photography by Werner Bischof 1951-52.

Without memories, there is nothing to account for our lives. With memories, we develop a language, drawing from universal concepts.

"Leaning against the wall were rows of ancient, tattered Chinese screens. I peeked between torn corners to see layers of paper, some yellowed with age but covered with exquisite calligraphy. A new body of work had begun." Roberta Marks, A Place Between

I found the above image at Seth Apter's tumblr page which you can find here. It is titled Four Play. He has beautiful images there as well as at his wonderful blog, which you can find here.

I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return. -- Octavio Paz

Four ancient scrolls from China.

A detail of the seals and chops used in the above scrolls.

A scroll made of bamboo
Man is but a part of the fabric of life -- dependent on the whole fabric for his very existence.
--- Gary Snyder

The above is titled LETTER FROM THE OLD WORLD by Lissa Hunter. Her book is LISSA HUNTER: Histories Real and Imagined. She also has a wonderful website which you can find here.

"Any process , whether it is washing dishes or making art, is begun to fulfill a function, is formed by appropriate techniques and materials, and if affected by cultural and historical influences." --Lissa Hunter

Visual Poetry

Japanese book cover, weathered and worn

And it was at that age--
Poetry arrived in search of me....
Pablo Neruda, Poetry

"Words begin as description. They are prismatic, vehicles of hidden, deeper shades of thought." Susan Brind Morrow, THE NAME OF THINGS
Ellen Meloy, artist-naturalist wrote such beautiful prose in her luminous mix of memoir and natural history, THE ANTHOLOGY OF TURQUOISE: Meditations on Landscape, Art and Spirit. As you read her words, visions of landscapes rich with light, shade, textures and colors spark your imagination.


"Art can be much more than eye candy. By appealing to the senses, one can evoke a deeper response--one that is memorable and lasting." Lisa L. Cyr, ART REVOLUTION

One such artist who seems to go deeper, to a more poetic place is Linda, from Quebec. Her imagery, like poetry, seems to peel away the layers to reveal a simpler, more elemental, yet more mysterious human connection. You can find her blog here, and more of her luminous imagery at Les Brumes flickr page here. (The above 3 images and the one below are from
her Flickr stream, with permission.)

...I don't know where it came from,
From winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not words,
nor silence...and it touched me. Pablo Neruda, Poetry

Another artist who speaks to me as non-verbal visual poetry is Lissa Hunter. You can find her book, LISSA HUNTER: Histories Real and Imagined by Abby Johnston at Amazon.com. You can find more of her beautiful poetic works here. (The following 3 images are from Lissa's website, with permission).

"Lissa makes visible the architecture of an internal universe, revealing the corners, the doorways, the attics where our histories accumulate." Abby Johnston

"...Effort to understand, to make understandable, not necessarily intellectually. How do you 'understand' a bird in flight?" Lissa Hunter

"I came to feel that an artist is doing most when he is projecting his own humaness and doing this with utmost intimacy, candor and precision." Elmer Bischof