Dalai Lama ...

off to hear a much anticipated lecture today ...

the last painting ... [e.8]

compression - conglomerate - layers - strata -
composites -
libraries of alexandria -
babylon -
enuma elish -
ravaged - revenged -
disregard and abandon -
parhelions -
ice - salt -
crystal - hydration -
water memory - transfigurations -
polyethylene pressure resists -
impositions and natural order -
cause and effect -
archeology, anthropology ...

light, firmament, dry land, luminaries, and man -
what intention [bullets] end[s] - or starts ...

branches of thought -
neurology -
reverence -
divine inspiration ...

the last painting ... [e.7]

i’m feeling cautiously optimistic ...
asking for, and accepting help
from the perspective of clearly defined need
rather than want, desire, or deserving -
it’s a new and humbling experience ...

some ideas are simply
part of a grander scheme ...

over the past twenty years,
july 4th has been a day of sincere gratitude
for the freedoms we’ve acquired,
the intelligence and humane manner with which
we’ve accomplished some of them,
the wisdom and tenacity of the persons who led us to them;
for reprieves from the bondage of self
and the chance to fill the God-shaped hole
in my soul ...

the last painting ... [e.6]

i’m starting to understand
my shortsightedness
in marketing and promotion of my work ...
when i was younger, it was a lot easier to ask
for consideration, favors, and help ...
at my age, i presume that people expect me to
have attained a certain stature and independence
in my field of expertise ...
false - the world, and my response to it,
has drastically changed since 2001 -
definitely an odyssey -
or as i said years earlier - odyssey and exile ...

when i used to think that i [more than others] -
deserved, or was entitled to benefits of my effort -
i never hesitated to ask ...
humility, pride, and neurosis changed all that ...
now i’ve realized that it’s only those who dare to ask
that earn consideration in the grand scheme of things ...

the other truth is;
i’m so preoccupied with appreciation;
living, researching, and developing art,
that marketing becomes an extraneous
and often toxic pursuit ...

nothing says ‘fact’ like black on white ...
word(s) on a page - signage - a mark -
evidence of some kind of intent or activity -
unless it’s written in blood ...

three wooden panels - seven coats of gesso -
layered surface markings - modeling paste -
inscriptions - black iridescent glaze -
sanded to white and gray - naphthol red letters -
iridescent copper - pure titanium white
with iridescent pearl - water - heat - gravity -
cadmium yellow capillaries ...

weathering crisis, meditation, prayer -
reading, studying, and paying attention ...

fact - i am - ami - fatima - iepov ...