[after viewing a film clip of the American self-taught artist, William Hawkins1]

for William Hawkins, of course,
& the film maker
& his anima then, Lynn

1
How would you depict it,
the great sorrow now, 
even a corner of it? 

Perhaps
forge on,
find a photo,
a horse to
paint as in
the film, 

busy with the making
of it, how the belly's
too much, needs thinning
and haunches trimmed
too to size, concise seizure
of eye and paint dependent
upon hands, monumental
concerns aright, or, at least
perspectives one's own
suffering amidst, against, 

or in the teeth of daily concerns 
taken on as ultimate-form, it is
visual commentary, response 
painted, it is backyard ruin put
to good uses, kindness extended
in hammer's claw upon cast
off wood, it is Crow near the 
barred door, and with heart
provide limit to dulling descents, 
then again find Desire, that
it, Desire, may plunge further/
deeper, deeper still, into the
muck magic of shorter days 
given in winter, in the longer 
nights generously dumped, 
portion/proportion control,
upon the human, such,

such occupies, with familiars, 
allusive smears, serving now
and ahead who will partake of
the offering, who will be held
healed in their beholding 

nuanced in cloud swatch, 
in land swath tumbled.


2
I once, your other darkness, quoted Hopkins
to you, seasons of dryness2 upon the bitter pitch3
'midst discovery, What I do is me, for that I came,4 
not a text for self worship but, rather, an assent
to keep world woe personally felt in that greater
perspective making poems from orphan woe, 
from ever furtive grace eluding then, surprise,
in bleakest place, sudden braced, parses newly
in the greener green of things pleading still,

O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.5


3
In the shorter light, the extended night of cold
and star-bright questions, may you cast clumsy
net forward into what it all might mean to fretted
you, to me, stretched, though I will not thrust
these words any longer upon your pen or paint
but make offering with thanks for your own work
to feed us through the eyes, perhaps time to mount
that horse and soldier on or to fall off again, gain
Damascus perspective, from one's back watch
vision distort the massive horse into a God receding
into necessary darkness foregoing image in order

to see what may form in the spreading dirt, 

what resurrection there is in the smell of paint. 

>>><<<

The painting is by William Hawkins

View the film clip here:

https://vimeo.com/62503468

1 In 1982, Roger Ricco visited and filmed the painting studio of William Hawkins. in Columbus, Ohio.

William Hawkins was born in Kentucky on July 27,1895; his big block letter signature informs us of this in nearly all of his paintings. In 1916 he moved to Columbus, Ohio where he became an urban jack-of-all-trades, working relentlessly and often simultaneously at numerous odd jobs including driving a truck. Although Columbus became Hawkins' permanent home, his childhood in Kentucky provided him with his knowledge and love of animals, an awareness that informs even his most fantastic dinosaur and safari animal paintings. And, in the 1930s, when he began making art, animals were his first subjects. In Two Dinosaurs Wrestling Hawkins intuits the mass and force of the creatures, and physically builds out their forms with sand. Although he only had a third grade education, Hawkins always retained a curious, optimistic and energetic spirit. His selective eye constantly culled photos from newspapers, magazines, and advertisements, which he would clip and store in a suitcase 'archive.' He referred to these images as 'research.' Almost all of his paintings originated from one of these clippings, such as the swimming pool at the Hearst Castle in Neptune Pool, San Simeon or the Columbus, Ohio landmark depicted in his series of paintings of the Deshler Hotel. Hawkins would also collage photos into his paintings and paint around the collaged element, adding another dimension to the painting's formal composition and its emotional power.
Even though Hawkins had dedicated himself exclusively to his art by 1979, his work wasn't exhibited publicly until 1982 when artist Lee Garrett entered one of Hawkins' paintings in the amateur division of the Ohio State Fair. However, artist Robert Natkin was so profoundly affected by Hawkins' painting that he emphatically awarded it first prize in the professional division. William Hawkins' prominence in the history of art was thereby established, and his career rapidly gained momentum. He painted with uninhibited exuberance up until his death from a stroke in 1990. Always open to experimentation and growth as an artist, Hawkins said, 'There's nothing to do but sit around and get better." William Hawkins has been the subject of museum retrospectives at the American Museum of Folk Art, New York, the Columbus Museum of Art, and the Ginza Art Space, Shiseido Corporation, Tokyo. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in major museum survey exhibitions of American Outsider and Folk Art including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA among many others. His work is in preeminent museum and private collections throughout the world, including the American Museum of Folk Art, New York, the Columbus Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, The National Museum of AmericanArt, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo and the Newark Museum, New Jersey among others. There are plans for a William Hawkins retrospective at the High Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Most recently, the Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL showcased William Hawkins alongside Hawkins Bolden in 'Hawkins/Hawkins: One Saw Everything, One Saw Nothing' (September 14,2012 - January 5,2013) .

William Hawkins: Making Itself will be on view at Ricco/Maresca Gallery from March 21st through May 11,2013.

2 dryness.  In this case dryness indicates spiritual darkness/depression/abjection/aridity of soul and spirit. 

3 pitch I use the word for it's various flavors of meaning both noun and verb, throwness, thrust forward, a sports field, tar, sticky stuckness.  See these from etymonline.com:

pitch (n.1) 1520s, "something that is pitched," from pitch (v.1). Meaning "act of throwing" is attested from 1833. Meaning "act of plunging headfirst" is from 1762; sense of "slope, degree, inclination" is from 1540s; musical sense is from 1590s; but the connection of these is obscure. Sales pitch in the modern commercial advertising sense is from 1943, American English, perhaps from the baseball sense.

pitch (v.2) "to cover with pitch," Old English pician, from the source of pitch (n.2).

pitch (n.2) "resinous substance, wood tar," late 12c., pich, from Old English pic "pitch," from a Germanic borrowing (Old Saxon and Old Frisian pik, Middle Dutch pik, Dutch pek, Old High German pek, German Pech, Old Norse bik) of Latin pix (genitive picis) "pitch," from PIE root *pik- "pitch" (source also of Greek pissa, Lithuanian pikis, Old Church Slavonic piklu "pitch," Russian peklo "scorching heat, hell"). The English word was applied to pine resins from late 14c. Pitch-black is attested from 1590s; pitch-dark from 1680s.

pitch (v.1) c. 1200, "to thrust in, fasten, settle," probably from an unrecorded Old English *piccean, related to prick (v.). The original past tense was pight. Sense of "set upright," as in pitch a tent (late 13c.), is from notion of "driving in" the pegs. Meaning "incline forward and downward" is from 1510s. Meaning "throw (a ball)" evolved late 14c. from that of "hit the mark." Musical sense is from 1670s. Of ships, "to plunge" in the waves, 1620s. To pitch in "work vigorously" is from 1847, perhaps from farm labor. Related: Pitched; pitching.