In First Body

IN FIRST BODY

A painter paints himself from a mirror.

He sees an image and thinks how to draw,

Using which materials, in what size.

Small, intimate, with small hand movements

In life-size

Or larger than life.

What to draw

The whole figure, or part of it, cutting the image

How to draw

In one quick strong swoop, close to the paper

Draw the body with the whole body

Or from a distance

To measure and examine

To dim the line with a blot or to cut the blot with a line

To erase, to emphasize, to photograph or to understand, to interpret

Or once this way and once that way and again

It’s all part of the process, of creating the work

Sometimes running, sometimes checking,

Sometimes breaking through and sometimes closing in,

Sometimes erasing and sometimes retaining what is left.

A painter enters into the mirror and is a stranger to himself

Eyes that examine eyes that return the gaze

And examine

A moving figure, a still figure.

A thinking figure, a feeling figure

Asking: that’s how I look, that’s how I work, that’s how I feel?Asking: what’s renewed, what’s gotten old, what’s funny?

One hand draws moving incessantly

Breaking beyond the boundaries of the mirror

Unseen

But this is the hand that exists for real.

E.D.

Dec. 1997