May 2002 [Home] 12 Tom McCarthy My Garage          Point Richmond Reflections of Three Small Skiffs on Water          View of Rocks By the Sea El Dorado National Forest, No. 3          Light on the Land ~ . ~ My Garage           Louis Siegriest, 1921 purple walls brown facade red trees green leaves blue windows lavender door says come on in mango melon vanilla yard split-level garage bravely standing storing the blazing paintings he finally despaired of and burned turning the yard permanently brighter than the floodlights of Hades the way he paints the countryside stroking the flames as pigment turning the bright landscapes into ashes yes but coating the world with a luminescent swirling smoke ~ . Point Richmond           Maurice Logan, 1927 Red orange and yellow hills muscle up to the E-shaped bayshore pushing the bent shacks into the drink like a dog scraping off fleas down left canvas appears as blue melts away offshore picture lifts off the surface thick slabs of yellow paint pile up the whole area a heaving geologic process of color ~ . Reflections of Three Small Skiffs on Water           August Gay, 1935 dark dank stippled river water line of chemical green trees stand and lean along the far bank pink trunks twist in the heat gunwales bleed into ripples along the surface of fast running water relentless current knocking the red boats against each other yank the tie lines knotted on the pilings and pull them blindly away ~ . View of Rocks By the Sea           Maurice Logan, ca. 1926 bulldog's chin of desert rocks beating back the sea red streaked blue sea with relentless hard dry a tempered yellow and brown scorched by fog yet resolute against full water stubborn stone while sloping blue hills that have given up the fight fade away in the background ~ . El Dorado National Forest, No. 3           Marv Johnson, 1998 "A friend gave me a gift certificate so I got all these brand new tubes of paint." Skipped the brushes and took the tubes in his fist directly to the canvas. "They call it texture, but I think it's chunky, swirly and thick." Trees marched up a rocky ridge branches curling over boulders flowing under a grey-beard, tough-guy sky. "A long way from Pierce Point, from the seamless brushwork, but this is more of what I make of what I see, now." Impeccable moustache floats above his smile he dodges at the painting hung low on the white wall below big reddish rocks his new sneakers squeak on the cleanest studio floor in all of art. "I used to meditate, and paint and paint and paint. Now I simply trust instead." The blue sky behind the grubby clouds is the same blue of my old pickup truck weirdest color ever on a pickup but the attempt here makes harshly clear why this sky we should see more of more often. ~ . Light on the Land            Crossing IV, Nila Rusnell Oakes. Oil on board, 16x72 Well it's raining like hell 20 miles east of here, black clouds dragging grey skirts along the highway empty and flat sort of goes that way, and back maybe hailstones the size of apples this time, but over here, west partly cloudy and the sun is warm but the wind it feels a little heavy and damp change is going to come along pretty quick does in such a big place the ceiling is awful low here yeah, the prairie is so flat you naturally want to stay low. (Tom McCarthy's poems have apeared in California Quarterly, Poetry Motel, Smartish Pace and Green Fuse, among others. Poems on paintings have appeared in Puckerbrush Review and Ekphrasis. He lives in San Francisco.)