End of September
September is ending. I hardly
recall its beginning, so quickly…
I am distracted by the Monarch
that sips from the verbena, dips
into the marigolds for a moment,
then flies to the coleus blossoms…
the time since Labor Day has flown.
I wonder…I am no butterfly,
but I behave like one.
Perhaps I too am preparing for
a long journey to my winter home.
SPb: St. Petersburg
The Russians and Germans at war, bombing
each other’s treasures: palaces, churches,
town squares and bridges blown up and exposed
to the elements and looters. Always,
this is the way of conflict. And later,
people, the ones who survived, pick away
at the rubble for some small thing they might
recognize: a photo or mother’s broach.
Our guide says the Germans destroyed Catherine’s
Palace. But volunteers restored the rooms
and added the gold leaf, each stroke putting
distance against the memory of war.
Lingonberries
In Helsinki, Finland, I visited the Ateneum Art Museum where there was a special exhibit celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Helen Schjerfbeck, an important Nordic artist. The museum’s website http://www.ateneum.fi/en has excellent information about the exhibit and the artist, but seeing the original works in the country of her birth was amazing.
Scandinavian women artists were very active in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Americans mostly think of Mary Cassatt as one of the only female artists working at the time, but women like Schjerfbeck and the Danish artist Anna Archer, traveled in Scandinavia and Europe and lived and studied in Paris as well. They produced bodies of work that uniquely drew upon their experiences as Nordic women.
On Viewing the Art of Helene Schjerfbeck in Helsinki
Finland: cold dark forests and reindeer.
Abstract music ascends from sea foam.
Dream works of glass and stone designed by
ripples of North wind that inspire,
absent sentiment. Colors washed by
sun’s edges: cool grey and sea-glass green.
Portraits : the artist’s mother – focused
silent pose. Without models to draw,
self-portraits record development,
influence of the region. Her hand
draws the trees and their shadows at dusk.
poeticpossibilities 