the re(a)lative BRIGHTNESS of GREY


Steve Dalachinsky
January 2017

Celebrating Arteidolia’s 3 Year Anniversary
Steve Dalachinsky’s poemessay from April 2014

KARMA: the re(a)lative BRIGHTNESS of GREY

Brice Marden in conversation at Karma bookstore


 

   1. an almost unrelated prelude:

 

salaries & negotiated arrivals:

even some bourgeoise are good /eyeglasses / sunglasses /  rowers >

today’s the day legends are made / luxury rentals / solid wax-ons / clear

skin

beautiful horizons / the notion of scale / little has changed / f(i)

(n)a(n)cial applications / quality endorsements / HEAR TOO-DAY / GONE
 
Tomorrow >

 

clear oceans / allied hearts / healthy emergencies / instructional

endorsements /     where things can take you > logic & brilliant brilliant 

colors…

grabbers elong the cripple’s time longer just as i get bothered by folks 

who talk to strangers >  still cravers the same apples to me > putting the

nosteps closer together

                        the caves are more diplomatic than the tales they tell

& the idea of revelation always sounds good / it’s about the equality of 

shapes /

lines / chromosome/atics >  seamless hail on a frozen river / rowers

/ heavy bags ?

unlimited privileges / babysitter demands / where the new standard is 

leaning toward pretty / a new pretty  or  too pretty  > the humble man

playing his hunch & betting on the guy in the convertible @ the red light

on a warm winter day blasting his radio / & it only took us a few hundred
 
years to get here > THE NEW GREY – a purely unpure hands on relative 

brightness of what the he who jumped did :
   2.  unrelated prelude too

as of the perimeter & what the eye…
the impact of my hand on her head

is equal to her hysteria

bergs which are mountains  c. hundreds)

covering a later date ,roughly

   today’s the day  i thought  < where africa begins /

      clear beautiful food to the rescue

the idea of providing a comfort zone

     dissolved in a few brief moments

the way neighborhoods do / the impact would have been financial or
                         deadly
     would it have been any others but us   / but i recovered
                     & her state of health tho questionable
                remained somewhat intact.



   3. what actually might be the real discourse or disjointed facsimile
   thereof
        with alterations to the canvas

a.
sanded down wax  - these are paintings  > or are you kidding yourself? / 

bright red >
2 shapes becoming 3 >  symmetry / big accomplishment > 40’s to 50’s 

this old bunch of paper recordings / all the same shape / but if you saw 

it now being the first complicated coming faster > my attempts at really 

bright were not really bright tho graphic like graphite turning white into 

black > or am i kidding myself?  /  in love with tedium crosshatching to 

be in a room 7 hours a day surrounded by your influences > 3 deliberate 

greys that have to be deliberate ? / a real color filled with light / flea 

market located in the middle of the city / that’s no longer there/ hot 

neutral but not bright / reading essays > surprises > to be a guard in a

museum & absorb / to absorb these influences / finish drawings / razor 

blades / spread it on the wall / … > /  replaced by a gas station…

some things do not explain themselves / you just have to get it / cezanne 

does not explain himself / matisse tells you everything / bright is a 

matter of seeing / the color for that real form/shape > REAL 

POSSIBILITIES … basic tools

b. the love of razor blades (reprised)

shocked by time & how much of it there was
 /  is  /  different focus / now others not the same thing what one should

do > long tedious revisions / i tell myself one thing  / i push it    but 

nothing really changes  > before plans & apartments we planned 

histories / that’s no longer there >
                                                                 (be – in )
  the first babies caused us to move light / bird sounds / the light stops & 

so do i
         i am blinded by the greys & nothing changes tho the size has grown
                                 change occurs but not in the work
             flow                                                                                      
rhythm
                                           a dialogue with myself
 
       4. more discourse with innumerable interjections
a.
no right
no wrong                  anymore
no dialogue
from this old biddy who used to sell
i don’t know what happened
letting others crop your paintings
a farmer’s market in the middle of the studio
presenting beliefs
                            viability   /  vibrance    /  violence  /  impossible to deal 
with
      & must move on       >  vital /  that figures  >  what else is new?
              trust a generation to exploit their source material
                                          kuniyoshi for instance
or drinks   or reasons
                   inferior equipment   / not reality ?  / stuck with one’s own 
cliché
          in one’s own body of work  >  so one must move on or become 

impossible to deal with / waiting to be heard / waiting to leave / using 

them putting them together  marrying them with some of ) the…cultural

elite… d. though i did get  a good price from her one time / i feel 

responsible to my work  tho even this makes little difference / i plan on 

doing a home movie > at some point i reference art history less  > did i 

get tired of it? cross referencing > revival > real many of which were 

made …  concentrated focus on particular (feel) … take them home (with 

you)… watch them/ eastern 10-15 years > a long time taking stories / 

issues / to my mind they are not in the truest strictest sense > there are 

no more issues > or drunks or reasons made by amateurs / this was the 

standard > /  <

b.
                          i live in the heart of the city
                                                        in the country
virtual vs. real   (less relevant in others)
                                           you would buy them watch them
     (Hence (why they…
                                                  horrible evolution to make       the image 
true
                    in a nano-second    buy my presence / to go somewhere /
                            make connections / my image but let me keep the real 
thing /
          blue motion forward > perfect feeling >
                               some ideas more  relevant in some things
                                          this was the standard 2


c. home movies (frame)

             inventive brilliant frames / i’ve been going there since it closed
 
(down)
           BARK  - in the end we stick it in a frame – but once the frame is 

removed
                 we start to breathe again – however i couldn’t afford it >
i’m still kicking myself (about this one)  - he was (asking) for  too much 

money
       frame   no frame    unfortunately these things  have a way of) 

happen(ing) >
                              the         colors change / disappear
                                                      BECOME ONE
       since. what they call a one of  a kind item. i hadn’t seen one before.
                   source short hand robbed by a screen  & so it goes such is 
life
                           What can you do? you can’t (do   or) have everything.
         back home    the war   physical reality    books are not real / are 
 
article)
         You can’t really fake those kind of things > the flesh is less a movie 
on tv
                  i guess anything’s possible. i didn’t (actually) listen to them.
                 letters & other things. letters in the form of audio recordings
                              index to something they are not seeing
                              would use these things to send letters
            students offer the most questions >  i thought it was too 

expensive
             these questions  are valid  > philosophy > i haven’t seen any…
                         internal debate another missed opportunity
              information is one thing   the actual experience another
                                      RECORDINGS
                    where is it best that you have the experience
                            it looked like the real thing (genuine
                  what service men sent their families overseas
                     the ultimate chance to be enlightened
                              i guess anything’s possible
             making a real experience as soon as the object leaves
to be fair. But i can imagine. dear…letters in the form of audio recording
people would use these things to send letters … around the same time i 

found
              bought…& that instant he wakes up when life’s philo…. the 

mind’s stomach
                             only to get hungry in one’s mouth.

(based on a Brice Marden interview interspersed
with a partial Tom Church interview plus my own fragments)


 

 



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