He's Created What I Have in Mind

It’s been a while since I’ve written. Spending each weekend shoveling snow, five birthdays and a 50th wedding anniversary have kept me from much time at the computer. However, it has not prevented me from doing work and creating art.

Today, I have a unique experience to share. As many of you who read this blog know, I recently created a painting of Lily/Pranker’s Pond in Saugus. It is a place at which I spent many a moment of my younger life, honing my athletic skills with ash and steel in winter’s chill, or reflecting upon a summer’s eve. Wrapped in autumn’s fire, or the clean freshness of spring! Some of you who read this spent days with me there, exploring, playing, lost in our youth in this little oasis of nature.

Tom Sheehan is a master of the written word. A fellow Saugonian, (ok, I now live next door in Lynn) Tom shares that same connection to Lily/Pranker’s pond. Like me, he ventured there, in winter, picking the pocket of an opponent about to celebrate a winning goal. His experience in summer is more of stories told to me by my mother, fishing, swimming, or relaxing with that special girl or boy, rowing a small boat, like characters in a painting by Monet.

Some of you might recognize the name of Tom Sheehan in part because my paintings “Reflections (Gloucester Dory)” and “Burnside’s Bridge” have graced the cover of his books “Epic Cures” and “Brief Cases Short Stories”

The painting “Lily/Pranker’s Pond” which debuted on this blog back in December was actually part of a third collaboration between Tom and myself; I didn’t mention anything back then because I didn’t want to jinx things. (I’m superstitious like that. You should have seen my rituals for hockey and soccer)

Qarrtsiluni, an online publication recently put out a call for submissions for a piece they were developing entitled “Mutating the Signature” Briefly, the idea was that two creative artists, from different disciplines, or similar would collaborate in a manner that would show how the other or together could influence and inspire. As part of the submission, you also had to include the process used to develop the collaboration. You did not have to know the person with whom you were collaborating, just had to describe how that person has inspired you to create a reaction to the piece. It could be sculpture, audio, video, or in our case, written word and visual.

I created the painting, and then Tom wrote the poem. And now, I am happy to say, we’ve made the cut. The piece is up and online, and if you click the little speaker under the painting, you can hear the author read the poem which serves to only enhance the viewer’s experience. I hope you like it as much I had working with Tom to create this piece.

Here’s the link to the piece: http://qarrtsiluni.com/2009/01/30/hes-created-what-i-have-in-mind/

I hope you are all well and thank you for your continued support. Though I have several more birthdays’ arriving soon, including my own, I hope that I will be able to post more regularly. Until next, do take care.

Artistically yours,
Jeff