The Lovers’ Chronicle 8 September – to be, reprise – art by Ozias Humphry & Maria Lassnig – music by Bret Mosley

Dear Zazie,

Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge.  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

naissante rêve…

fallin’ asleep in the rv on St. George Island,
you by my side how am i gonna write this…

on this day for you,
i could sing an Elvis
inspired version to you
“Ooh yeah, maybe not”
recite Hamlet’s soliloquy
“Oh maybe later”
or hangout with friends
“That sounds better”
as you like on your day,
our second one together
back at Lake Hartwell
and the choice to be
still the right one for us

© copyright 2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

on this day for you; about this mystifyin’ journey we had no choice in startin’; inexplicable the twists and turns, unpredictable the curves encountered, assessin’ the current status on this celebratory day; still standin’ to face what may, and we do have choices and we choose to continue together

© copyright 2022.2023 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

oh, decidedly to be

turns out
there is a way
and a one

“Mi corazon, mi vida, mi amor”
words i have longed to hear

this vision created,
now complete
with you to share

whether near or far
nothin’ else matters
on this special day,
on any day, Anna

mon cœur, ma vie, mon amour

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

Pale Love, Pale Rider

oh, pre-you
decidedly
not to be

since you,
beginnin’ to see
perhaps to be

no secret here
the words
have ever been

not even tryin’
to figure out why
the convergence
took so long

perhaps that serves
to sharpen the feelin’s

like fire
of heart and mind
will we be

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

for Wanda

finishin’ off drinks
and feelin’s
line by line
at Bar Marmot

everything written
paved the way
for where i am

wrestlin’ with what matters
and why comes circlin’ ’round
again, and found it ain’t too bad

“I’m starting to worry about you.”

it is ok, swear, there is comfort here

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

palpable angst
somethin’ we know
a helluva lot about
swear to sunny jesus,
hardest damn thing
to figure out
strugglin’ with whether
to be, or not to be

some, like me,
are wired for it

with apologies to Mr. Vidal,

had my dance
now done with all of that
turned to verse and art
perfectly acceptable substitutes

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

I feel your angst,
swear to god,
love is the hardest
damn thing to figure out

reckon you are strugglin’
with the age old delimma;
to be alone, or not to be alone

some folks are wired
for bein’ alone
figure that out first

if not to be alone is your choice,
then it comes down to this;
do you keep searchin’ for the one,
or do you settle for close enough

if you are lucky
and find the one,
then congratulations
you win at life
but i have only known
one couple who won,
so good luck with that

if you are with close enough
you will have to work
your butt off to keep it
therapy, lots of communication,
patience, understandin’…

jesus, i would rather go get drunk,
find Ms. Right-for-the-Night,
and be home by first light

© copyright 2017 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

But the light brushes 
By the crescent flesh tonight,
An awakenin' invisible and safe 
The touch actuates slowly 

They fell, wavered, ran away drop by drop,
The flow of the river, exhausted;
No one even suspected,
Do not touch, the broken

© copyright 2016 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

and now, we turn the reins over to Rhett.

Zazie, I read your note, My Prediction, here it is rewritten in verse:

One day you will say to yourself
“I wish I had hugged her more!”
And I will be with someone else
not thinking of you!

i can feel your angst, and as you know, that is somethin’ we know a helluva lot about around here.  swear to the goddess, love is the hardest damn thing to figure out.  i reckon you are strugglin’ with the age old delimma; to be alone, or not to be alone.

i think some people are wired for bein’ alone.  so the first thing you should do is figure that out.  it works for me.  i had my one dance with love and when it did not work out i was done.  i turned to sex and art and found that they were perfectly acceptable substitutes.  jett has not proven he can be alone.  he still believes in fallin’ in love.  hell, he probly has time for a couple more divorces!  mac tag has about decided that alone will work for him.  a dark-haired beauty recently told him not to give up hope.  his response; hope is a fickle, cold-hearted bitch.  but he allows it did not help that he told her to go to hell.

if not to be alone is your choice, then it comes down to this; do you keep searchin’ for the one, or do you settle for close enough.  if you are lucky enough to find the one, well then congratulations.  you win at life.  but i have only known one couple who won, so good luck with that.  if you are with someone who is close, you will have to work your butt off to keep it; lots of communication, patience, understandin’… jeez, i would rather go get drunk, find Ms. Right-for-the-Night, and be home by first light.

hope that helps.  stay in touch.  we will figure this out.

for the song of the day, another from our friend Bret Mosley (bretmosley.com) his version of “Poke” by the Frightened Rabbits, pretty much covers to be alone, or not to be alone in one song.

Today is the birthday of Ozias Humphry (or Humphrey) (Honiton, England 8 September 1742 – 9 March 1810 London); leading English painter of portrait miniatures, later oils and pastels, of the 18th century. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791, and in 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King (i.e. pastels).

his numerous portrait subjects included George Stubbs (1777), and allegedly a portrait claimed to be of the teenage Jane Austen, from perhaps as early as 1790 (clothing styles suggest a later date), known as the “Rice” portrait after a later owner, though this has always been a controversial attribution of the sitter. He compiled a fifty-page manuscript A Memoir of George Stubbs, based on what Stubbs had related to him; it is the only contemporary biography. This was edited and privately published in the 1870s and republished in 2005. He also knew William Blake and commissioned copies of some of his illustrated books. At least one of Blake’s letters to him is a significant document for Blake’s biographers.

Gallery

And today is the birthday of Maria Lassnig (Kappel am Krappfeld, Austria; September 8, 1919 – May 6, 2014 Vienna); artist known for her painted self-portraits and her theory of “body awareness”. She was the first female artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988 and was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 2005.

Though Lassnig began her career painting abstract works, she always created self-portraits. One of her earliest was Expressive Self-Portrait (1945), which she painted only weeks after leaving Vienna. In 1948 Lassnig coined the term “body consciousness” (Körpergefühlmalerei in her native German) to describe her practice. In this style, Lassnig only depicted the parts of her body that she actually felt as she worked. As such, many of her self-portraits depict figures that are missing body parts or use unnatural colours. The shading of the grotesque forms then become a code for interpreting her “Körpergefühlmalerei.” For example, red often acts as the most significant color in her paintings, sometimes suggesting pain but often just intense feeling or strain. By the 1960s Lassnig turned away from abstract painting altogether and began to focus more wholly on the human body and psyche. Since that time she created hundreds of self-portraits. Most of her work in the 1970s and 1980s paired her own image with objects, animals or other people, frequently with a blocked out or averted gaze, suggesting interiority.

From 1968 to 1980, Lassnig lived in New York City. From 1970 to 1972 she studied animated film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. During this time she made six short films, including Selfportrait (1971) and Couples(1972). Kantate (also known as The Ballad of Maria Lassnig), was produced in 1992 when she was seventy-three years old. It depicts a filmic self-portrait of the artist set to songs and music.

In 1980, she returned to become a professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, becoming the first female professor of painting in a German-speaking country. She was a chair at the University until 1997. In 1997 she also published a book of her drawings entitled Die Feder ist die Schwester des Pinsels(or The Pen is the Sister of the Paintbrush). She continued to paint, and in 2008 made her provocative self-portrait, You or Me, which exemplifies the often confrontational nature of her works.

In 2013 Lassnig received the Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Gallery

Mac Tag

thanks for stoppin’ by y’all