Art/Poetry Mash-Up: BOX OF CRAYONS (fragment)

Crayon is one of many media Bruce has used in his paintings on canvas and works on paper. He holds great regard for his materials and views them not just as implements or sources of color, but as dynamic objects. For many years he had a habit of adding his tools right into his pictures. Many of his artworks incorporate the actual crayons, pencils, markers, paintbrushes, paint tubes and pallette knives he had used.

The work on paper below, Regretful, incorporates an actual oil pastel (like a crayon, but oil-based rather than wax-based). The label of the pastel says “Cray-Pas Expressionist.” Bruce declares himself an Expressionist artist — however, he chose this object for its aesthetic qualities and the strength it brings to the composition, not for the meaning of its text.

.

BOX OF CRAYONS (fragment)

A
Box of crayons — — —

—

Has
Missiles of meaning

—

Wandering
Over a child’s
Battlefield.

—

Bright
Orange and red
Polka dots — — —

—

Spilling out . . .

—

The margins
Of
Life —

—

Trifling with

—

Rifle shots of

—

Purple
. . . Or
Green

—

. . .

—————

———

—

Regretful
Acrylic, marker and actual oil pastel on paper, 24″ x 19″

Regretful (detail)

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Glass (fragment)

.

The Glass (fragment)
.

The
Crystal goblet
Drank light

—————

———

—

Still Life
Oil on canvas, 10″ x 10″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Over My Shoulder – Guest Artist Margot (Meg) MacGibeny Sturt

My father is not the only one in the MacGibeny family with artistic inclinations. Bruce’s sister, Margot (Meg) MacGibeny Sturt, is a talented photographer. She has participated in group exhibitions and sold her work through those shows and word of mouth. She is also an active member of the Photo Art Journals group on Yahoo, which recently featured her photo Deep Freeze Art Deco Montreal on its home page. As a result of that affiliation, Meg’s work was selected to appear in the new book “Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media” by L.K. Ludwig. It is always a treat to receive one of her handmade cards with a custom photo on the cover.

When they were in college, Meg would sing to Bruce’s piano accompaniment; they even had a radio show together in Alton, Illinois. She says that she now sings through her photography. To my ear and eye it is a rich, clear voice. Her scenes of nature, including sea and sky and earth, and her occasional pictures of people, direct your attention. She captures moments that pass too quickly and details that others might overlook. She said of the photo below, “We could not move, did not move, for several minutes marveling in the beauty — we did not stay long enough to see any movement or change, but believe its continuing journey must have been spectacular…or did it just dissolve and disappear?”

Meg says that Bruce’s poetry has spoken to her over the years even more than his visual art, so this is an ideal collaboration. Enjoy this mash-up of Meg’s photograph, Over My Shoulder, with Bruce’s poem, Clouds.

.

Clouds

.

The centenary
Progression . . .

—

Of billows . .
And
Bastions

—

Proceeds . . . . .

—

Across the sky

—

Into . . . .

—

The
EYE

—

Of the beholder!

—

The seasons of
The clouds

—

Infinitely various

—

Lead

—

To
The conclusion

—

That
Rather than read

—

The
Stars

—

One
Should

—

Read

—

The
Clouds.

—————

———

—

Over My Shoulder
Saratoga Springs by the Library, 1995

Poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.
Photograph copyright 2009 Margot Sturt. All rights reserved.

See more art/poetry mash-ups:

• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Marbles
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Contrast
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Change
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Clock
• All Art/Poetry Mash-Ups

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Fireworks

A poem and painting for Independence Day.

.

Fireworks

The
Plunge into darkness

—

Of fireworks . . .

—

Is More . . . .

—

Than color and flame

—

Is the same

—

As

—

Adventure

—

In boredom.

—

To

—

Break Up . . . . . the

—

Staid

—

Similarity

—

Of
Sameness.

—

The
Endlessness —

—

Of
Endings.

—

Burst high –

—

Burst far

—

Light
My
Night

—

With
What
You
Are – .

—————

———

—

Fireworks
Oil on canvas, 24″ x 19.5″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

See more art/poetry mash-ups:

• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Marbles
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Contrast
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Change
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Clock
• All Art/Poetry Mash-Ups

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: GARDEN

Bruce has painted and written about all seasons in their many aspects. Spring in particular, with its themes of birth and growth and its profusion of color, has appeared in his work as a metaphor for artistic inspiration and expression. Casting himself as a gardener in the poem Garden and the painting Green Thumb, he makes plain his reverence for nature and its status as a source of his restless creative energy.

.

GARDEN

…
I
Am in my garden

—

Bringing out all the
Most
Ambitious plants . . . . .

—

To their full potential

—

Soil Smell haunts
My nostrils

—

The green perfume

—

Shatters
My boredom

—

Scatters it . . . . .

—

Across
The yard . . .

—

Pardoning the . .

—

Huge
Hydrangeas

—

AS

—

IT

—

PASSES

—

My boredom

—

Is gone

—

By the end
Of the day

—

Lost

—

In a

—

Paradise

—

Of

—

Growing
Things

—————

———

—

Green Thumb
Mixed media on canvas, 28″ x 14″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

See more art/poetry mash-ups:

• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Marbles
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Contrast
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Change
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Clock
• All Art/Poetry Mash-Ups

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Marbles

After years of mastering his craft of oil painting, Bruce began to embrace mixed media. His new technique ranged from using various wet and dry art media (like oil and acrylic paint, pastel, and pencil) on the same canvas, to creating paper collage and assemblage incorporating everything from magazine ads to actual metal paint tubes to strings of Christmas tree lights.

Those three bright spots above the bottle in the still life painting below? Clear glass marbles. It is easy to see why they appeal to him; they are shiny, reflective, smooth, yet just disruptive enough to the picture plane to excite the eye. Their shape is echoed in the grapes on the table and their light is mirrored by the dollops of gold paint on the lower right edge. He may be depicting a still life, among the most traditional and popular subjects in painting for centuries, but the marbles are part of what makes this his still life. Bruce’s delight in his materials is evident in both the poem and the painting that follow.

.

Marbles

Crystal
…..Marbles . . .

—

On . . . .
…..The.
……….Table

—

Playing . . . . .
…..With the light

—

AS
…..If
……….It

—

.. . . were a marble!

—

The whole . . thing

—

Round
Various
Pointillist
Pontification

—

Seen

—

And
Seizing

—

The
Global Aspects

—

Come
Down

—

To this:

—

Bliss on a table

—

In the middle

—

Of May!

—————

———

—

Still Life
Mixed media on canvas, 20″ x 14.5″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

See more art/poetry mash-ups:

• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Contrast
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Change
• Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Clock
• All Art/Poetry Mash-Ups
  

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Clock

When better to contemplate the nature of time than on the day we set our clocks ahead by one hour for daylight saving time? The loss of that hour will be felt by many as it affects our schedules.

Bruce has often explored the tension between the orderly progression of time and the disorderly way we experience it. The last stanza of “The Clock” hints at this tension. The theme appears in a number of his other poems, including the previously posted TIME. He has attached actual clocks to a few canvases (an attempt to tame time?), but in his painting “Clock,” below, the object is drawn purely from imagination. The shapes and lines are varied and energetic. Shadows pool under the clock and float on the wall behind it. The thick paint in the center of the clock face has been carved with a palette knife, and the same technique has been used to create the thin white lines on the table and the wall. Freeform pencil shading crazes the space around the clock. Bruce’s expressionistic depiction of the clock embraces time’s overall feeling of movement more than its linear precision.

.

The Clock

The Clock . . .
Counts the wall
It counts
The bookcase
In the hall . . .

—

It
….Counts . . . .

—

..The people
..How long
..Will they last?

—

..It        ……..Counts . . . . .

—

..All

.

—

The
…….Spaces
………….As Well in between:

—

.Asks the
.Question . . .     . . .

—

.What do they mean?

—

The clock is always counting, counting

—

Have you checked
The total number of seconds today?

—

The count is always clocking
The count is always clocking
The clock is always counting
The clock is always . . .

—————

———

—

Clock
Oil and pencil on canvas, 15″ x 15″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: WINTER EXPERIENCE

Once again the East Coast is socked with snow.

When Bruce titles a poem in capital letters, he intends to convey monumentality. You can be sure it was snowing mightily in New York City when he wrote this poem on February 7, 2003, as well as when he completed the earlier painting “Winter Street.”
.

WINTER EXPERIENCE

The

—

Inch by inch

—

ACCumulation

—

Continues.

—

Inch by inch

—

Piling up . . .

—

Until
The sky . . . .

—

Is
No
More.

—

Leaden . .

—

Foot on
The
Pedal — — —

—

Whole
Empires
Fall — — — —

—

Beneath
The
Snow.

—

So…..

—

We
Go
Back
To
Sleep.

—

And
Keep
Dreaming
White.

—

And white.

—

And
More
White

—————

———

—

Winter Street
Mixed media on canvas, 23.75″ x 19.75″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Mash-Up Monday: THANKSGIVING ‘99

Bruce, being both a spiritual man and an appreciater of festive foodstuffs, has always heartily enjoyed Thanksgiving and is looking forward to this one.

A number of his poems celebrate the abundance and joy of the holidays. In the painting that accompanies the poem below, he incorporates actual everyday materials that inspired him: plastic fork and knife, molded plastic food trays and aluminum foil. Yet he also uses gold paint and glitter to glorify the domestic scene that is made possible by these humble materials.

THANKSGIVING ‘99

This day . . . .

—

Of giving thanks
Through a gathering
Of the clan

—

Is A
Borrowed day . . . . .

—

This I say . . . . because
Nothing
Originates in this day

—

Nothing
…..And
Everything

—

No Outstanding stars:

—

On this day

—

Yet

—

Each a
Star

—

In
His
Own way!

—

So

—

Pass the bird

—

We
Need more

—

At this
End of the table

—

‘Til we
Can
ConSume

—

Nothing else

—

Save
Football

—

On
The
Cable!

—————
———
—

Thanksgiving
Oil and mixed media on canvas, 33.5″ x 29.5″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2008 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Mash-Up Monday: Light Bulb

Regardless of genre — portrait, landscape, cityscape, seascape, nude, still life, etc. — light in all its manifestations appears prominently in Bruce’s paintings and poems. He visually and verbally depicts dawn, sunshine, shade, shadow, sunset, twilight, electric light, candlelight, starlight, moonlight and total darkness. When he addresses light explicitly, as in the poem “Light Bulb,” it is with reverence. The painting that follows, “The Lamp,” is one of Bruce’s personal favorites.

.
Light Bulb

InCandescent
Fire . . .

—

Contained

—

In a
Glass teardrop

—

About . . . .

—

To

—

EXplode . . .

—

In your lamp.

—

Right-On

—

Light-On

—

Casting
Aside – – –

—

All
Timidity!

—

Hail

—

To
The
Hallowed
Halo!!!

—

It
Is
On.

—

May
It
Never
Go
Off

—

And – if off

—

On
Again!

—————
———
—

The Lamp
Oil and mixed media on canvas, 14.75″ x 15″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2008 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.