I have been told more than once that I have a tendency towards melancholy. It shows in the writing and it shows in my choices when I go searching for inspiration. Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth are two american artists that never fail to stir that mood in me.If I allow myself to wallow in their art, invariably a poem will begin to form in my head.On this side of the water Martin Gale sometimes evokes similar moods and his work has echoes of both american artists.
Old Man
The tyre hanging in the garden
is proof that children used to play there;
but in the breeze it’s a shaking head.
Today snowflakes flying by
leave the sycamore white on its northern side.
The garden is still: no snowman, no footprints.
The tyre is an old man;
with an old voice he explains
“I cannot remember names, truth is
I hung too close to the trunk to be of use;
the sycamore branches bolted upwards,
to this day they’ve never spread out.”
from "Turn Your Head" published by Dedalus Press
Anyway it's nice to be able to include some examples of this art in the following presentations from Youtube; Wyeth on top, Hopper below.
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