12.31.2008

Down to Zero

Kate Beck Digital Snow Cover January 2009
Does it remind you of Stengel at The Whitney?

I've been procrastinating for several weeks now. The election is over, world peace is a fallacy, we're not selling, they're not buying. I've been taking long, really cold walks with my dog just to numb it all. Then I picked up a book of selected writings of Ad Reinhardt, which took me back -- to my own Black Paintings, and to myself. This poem, by W. H. Auden, was sited.


Kate Beck Canyon.Black 46x46 inches Oil, Wax, Mica on Linen 2007



The More Loving One

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell;
But, on earth, indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all the stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look to an empty sky
And feel its total darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.



Kate Beck Untitled 12x12 inches Oil, Wax, Mica on Linen 2008


Indifference, indeed.
I guess it's the best I can do right now.