Saturday, December 15, 2007

artist of the day---coleridge

as a young artist I tried to immerse myself in as much literature as possible. I remember discovering that some writers stood out as giants compared to others (much like michelangelo stands out compared to the thumb less abstract expressionists.) Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the most visual writer I have ever discovered especially in his masterpiece "the rime of the ancient mariner..." He was a heroin addict and I am not sure if that was part of what enabled him to make such hallucinatory masterpieces but whatever it was it worked for him. A great artist named gustave dore later illustrated his poem and I think the art is almost worthy of the poem. I have included a small snippet of the poem below...

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night ;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.

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Alice in Winter Watercolor

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