By Richard Mather
[Part 1 of a work-in-progress]
Face Value
Before the artist the subject sits.
He is still and he waits.
Of individual traits — hair (brown);
chin (prominent); fingers
(slim, clasped); shirt (smart, white) —
the artist takes no account,
makes no measure. Features pass
into one another, saturating
a surface that precedes
the contour, which precedes the part.
Where the septum ends
and the lip begins is a mere degree.
The cheekbone doesn’t appear
in isolation; it is seen in light
of the jawbone. The hands carry
with them the arms, as the cuffs
must appear with the sleeves.
Without division or interval,
the body appears as pure form
over content, surface without depth.
For the artist, the subject before him
is an object understood, clearly
— as one and at once.
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