What an Artist Knows (take 3)

What an Artist Knows (take 3)

                                   for Marissa

What an artist knows
She knows in the flesh
With each turn of her wrist
Each inspiration and breath
She iterates space
With a knowing caress

Eyes open or closed
There’s joy in her bones
Or the sudden most sorrow
That stipples her marrow
So come what tomorrow
The surer her vision grows

With the tip of a brush
She enraptures the rose
And captures swift life
As it ebbs and it flows
Through the harmonics
Of laughter and shade

Until by means
Still more enigmatic

From garden to pallet

She learns to transcribe

A ballet emblematic of 

The orchid’s silent journey

Along the blooming passage

Through its timeline aspect

Yet much as Sister Moon

Traversing each gradient phase 

Informed by the radiance

That endures

*  *  *  *  *

This is my 3rd attempt at writing this poem.  I wrote the first version more than 8 years ago and this most recent version dates back to May of this year when we celebrated Marissa's show at Dodds & Eder in Sag Harbor where 36 of her new paintings were on display documenting the Silent Journey of an orchid through its cycle of bud, bloom and decline.  Hard to pick just one but here is one of my favorite images from the collection:

The exhibit is a tour de force of painting as a narrative art.  Curated and beautifully hung by Kathy Zieger -- all 36 paintings have been arranged in chronological order along a single wall in the main showroom, which allows you to see and follow the full sweep of the storyline without interruption.