The first painting of the year

Back to the destiny, 2011, Marisa Polin

Sorry that I can only now post something. I have a good excuse, I was painting and to proof it here is a photo of the very first painting of the year: Back to the destiny. It is based on a poem by K. P. Kavafis. It will be exhibited at the group exhibition Ithaca or Poetry Project IV at World Art Delft in The Netherlands. It opens 29 January 2011.

Ithaca

When you start on your journey to Ithaca,
then pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Do not fear the Lestrygonians
and the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon.
You will never meet such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your body and your spirit.
You will never meet the Lestrygonians,
the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not raise them up before you.
Then pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many,
that you will enter ports seen for the first time
with such pleasure, with such joy!
Stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony,
and pleasurable perfumes of all kinds,
buy as many pleasurable perfumes as you can;
visit hosts of Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from those who have knowledge.
Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for long years;
and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,
rich with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.
With the great wisdom you have gained, with so much experience,
you must surely have understood by then what Ithaca mean.

-K. P. Kavafis (C. P. Cavafy), translation by Rae Dalven

Mario Vargas Llosa in Amsterdam

V Spinoza Lecture by Mario Vargas Llosa.
About Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

09/11/2009 (18:30 h), Universiteit van Amsterdam
booking by 4th of November: cultx1utr@cervantes.es
Instituto Cervantes, Utrecht

Poetry in the meadow

WAD Delft organized the 2nd edition of poetry project as part of Poetry International.
Exhibition: 31 January - 30 April 2009

Toyin Loye

Marius Quee

Dodog Soeseno

Bianca Tangande

Kudo Masahide

Marisa Polin

Tyler Starr

Some other artists from the list of participants:

Els Otten , Kika Wijnhoud, Noriko Yida, Wolfgang Brenner, Nico Hemelaar, Nao Ishizaka, Yvonne Muizert, Olaf de Baar, Georgia Grigoriadou, Paula Kouwenhoven, Hideki Kondo,
Theodor Liho.

The poet Vasalis is the inspirator voor the visual artists (in Dutch).

LUCHTSPIEGELING

Midden in deze woestenij
van zon, stenen en droog gewas
zie ik opeens mijn eigen land
- onaangetast door deze brand:
bleek water, mist over een wei,
zie ik hoe koel en zacht dat was.

IJl als de dunne, dode maan,
die overdag is blijven staan,
maar meer dan een herinnering,
begeerlijker dan enig ding
zie ik het verre water blinken,
trachten mijn ogen het te drinken.

M. Vasalis

Stichting World Art Delft, Rotterdamseweg 205, Delft / info@worldartdelft.nl

Poetry of Langston Hughes

CROSS

My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder were I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black?

DREAM VARIATION

To fling my arms wide
In some of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till till the white day is gone
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While a night comed on gently;
Black like me;
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance ! whirl ! whirl !
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening......
A tall, slim tree.....
Night come tenderly
Black like me

Langston Hughes, 1927

Look alike

James Joyce in Budapest I suppose. From a photo of him looking at the Danube the people of the group all posed doing the same. First I thought that they would be by chance at that position.
hat tip Paris Hilton ONLINE

Amsterdam Sur

A new digital magazine in Spanish. You can reat about literature, art and photography.
Written from the Amsterdam channels.
Revista Cultural Amsterdam Sur (Primavera 2008)

menoni_sur@hotmail.com
www.amsterdamsur.nl

Kluun

Kluun, a name for a writer? It must be a joke, I thought when I started hearing the interview on the long time ago saved podcast about the writer Kluun. He was answering questions about his book: When a woman comes to the doctor. I also thought the title of the book as strange or at least as incomplete. But that book had been sold, I don’t remember exactly, something like a million times already in The Netherlands and I have not noticed very much of that hype.

Apparently big part of the audience had been judging him negatively. Kluun, writing a book about his dead sick wife while he was not only promiscuous but unfaithful and o big sin, written in a funny way. She was already dead, and apparently as he explained she asked him explicitely to write about it.
I finally ready and after crying my life I have to say I enjoyed the book.