Camera Obscura

2012

36" X 24"

Oil on Panel

Available at Gallery 1261

This camera has been waiting a long long time
to be chosen among the props on its shelf.

The title has been carried over from sketchbook
to sketchbook for many years.

The teacup is one of the truly antiques from my collection
and is heavier and less lustrous than the more refined ones.

The birdcage has been called upon before
but needed a good dusting
before it was sharp enough to be set up in this still life.

The newspapers cut for the bottom pan
had stories about the Watergate break-in printed on them.

I say still life…But it isn’t really still at all is it.

I decided to dance ever so carefully
out on the edge with the background.

Pat’s favorite contrasts of hard and soft.
Powerful edges, diffuse shadows.

I wanted to pull that thread just to the tip of the breaking point.

Where my conscious decisions as to where to place the cracks
met the chaos brought into focus by an escaping creature of flight.

Like the furious rhythm of an Irish step dancer
building to a fevered crescendo
and then disappearing suddenly into a boggy island mist…
the energy is meant to startle.

The release
of both cage
and shutter
to tingle
behind a gently drifting veil
of formosa oolong.