I have been popping corn tonight, which is only a more rapid blossoming of the seed under a greater than July heat. The popped corn is a perfect winter flower, hinting of anemones and houstonias. For this little grace man has, mixed in with the vulgarness of his repast, he may well thank his stars.
— Henry David Thoreau, notebook entry dated 3 January 1842
Poetry as a whole is always directed at a more or less distant, unknown addressee, in whose existence the poet may not doubt, without doubting himself.
— Osip Mandelstam, “About an Interlocutor”
In this graphite still life drawing of crumbled sheets of paper, Rosana Castrillo Diaz reveals a mastery of careful and deliberate observation, belying the apparent simplicity of the work. Her choice of subject is deliberate, reflecting her interest in the ordinary objects of daily life. As she explained of this drawing, “In this body of work, there is a direct connection between memory, emotions, and the physical hand at work. Each mark is a feeling, a chord, each drawing a score witness to a moment in time, a mood, a place. In the silence and introspection engendered, the quietest gesture may very well be the loudest.”
/ / / / / / / / / . / / / / / / / / / / . . / / / / / / / / . / / / / / / / . . . / / / / / / / / / . / / . / / / / / . . / / /
”The shipwrecked sailor throws a sealed bottle into the sea at a critical moment”
“A cast iron statue representing the poet was lost, a victim of metal looters”
“The popped corn is a perfect winter flower”
“The city where Osip Mandelstam is said to have died (no one is sure of this)”
“Lost, a victim of metal”
“The indigenous art of all epochs destroyed by missionaries”
“Hinting of anemones”
“All epochs” “sealed”
“Lost, the rope given to Marina Tsvetaeva by Boris Pasternak”
“The sea at a critical moment”
“Is said to have died”
“Corn is a perfect winter”
“A cast iron statue”
*
Henri Lefebvre, The Missing Pieces
Henry David Thoreau, “1842” in The Thoreau Log
Mark Sandman, “The Ring” (Extended version)
Osip Mandelstam, “About an Interlocutor”
Rosana Castrillo Diaz, “Untitled” (2014)