ALL IN ONE GO: Picasso

[RonPrice]

Picasso, or perhaps it was one of his close friends, once said that his energy, the energy he put into a painting, is all transferred into it "in one go." Much of painting, to Picasso, was a breaking down and a remaking of something as he attempted to transform it. What was true of Picasso and his painting, as expressed here, is also true of the construction of my poetry, except for the long epic poem, epic prose-poetic opus, I am working on where the energy is spread out over many years. If I consider the total oeuvre of my poetry and prose output as one long poem, then the energy was not put out "in one go." There were many goes, over many years, as I made and remade things to my satisfaction and dissatisfaction, to and with my pleasure and my anxieties, tranforming my world and leaving it the same.

The tradition of self-portraiture in painting is also mirrored in my writing as a part of the tradition of autobiography. Self-portraiture begins with Albrecht Durer in 1493 and autobiography with St. Augustine in 426 A.D. -Ron Price with thanks to ABC TV, "Magic, Sex and Death: Part One on Picasso," 9 June 2002, 3:35-4:30 pm.

You can't put it all down.
The essence is never conveyable
and the corpus of self-portraits
always rests uncomfortably on
some of inner land’s unreality.1
I construct my self-portaits
somewhat like an artist
with the real me somewhere
behind the words, behind that
likeness which tells only some
of the psyche and the self-worth.
The calculation, choices and
manipulation are all part of
construction and it is far beyond
my corporeal vessel, some
scrutinized self, some fashioned
being its infinite variety of meanings,
its statement of self-analysis.
There is richness and ambiguity here
amidst the fluctuating fortunes of life,
the complexities and the multitudinous
renditions of my days, our days, these days2

1 A Sufi idea of 'the inner land of unreality compared to Revealed Truth' referred to by Baha'u'llah in Seven Valleys, USA, 1952, p.28.
2 With thanks to Steven Platzman in his introduction to Cezanne: The Self-Portraits.

Ron Price
10 June 2002

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[sosum]

years ago i was introduced to DEAR THEO>van gogh's letters written to his brother theo. van gogh was as eloquent a writer as he was master painter. at the time i was turned on to this little paperback, i also was a young painter in the throngs of severe depression. as i savored the letters, my own life was opening before me and the paintings to follow were richer as a result. the book was replaced by highschool antics and studies, then graduation, then years of trama and tradgedy of a personal sort. the little paperback was never forgotten. a year or so ago i picked up another copy and began to stroll through it. but this time there was something different . i had by now thrown myself 100% into my art, moved from a big metropolis to the wilds of idaho, had a personal rebirth, and, taken up chinese painting. traditional to boot. if you know van gogh's life, you would know already that he and several of the other impressionists had submerged themselves in the study of chinese and japanese woodcuts and paintings. reading "dear theo" this time was different. it was as if i had unconsciously molded my creative life as van gogh had. each page of the book became a teaching tool and i couldn't put it down. then, i couple of weeks ago, i bought the COMPLETE LETTERS OF VAN GOGH. it is a 3 volume set!!!! i once again find myself savoring each page. grabbing lesson after lesson. but this time i am different. and this time, my art is different also. we are both richer. yao chi, mo chi... rich with no money.. and i don't care. i am at peace this time and happy having found my nitch in the TAO of life. by-the-way, hard work and perseverance were one very important lesson i learned from the MASTER PAINTER/WRITER. to the readers of this blog and the viewers of my art...READ VAN GOGH"S LETTERS....