The title of this piece, the second in an open-ended series, is from John Donne's "Anatomy of the World." The series title ("give it to the wind") is from Jo Carol Pierce's "Blue Norther" (part of "Bad Girls Upset by the Truth," first performed in 1989 and released on CD by Monkey Hill Records in 1995), but I also have in mind Luce Irigaray's 1983 book The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger (translated by Mary Beth Mader and published by the University of Texas Press in 1999). Both have been helpful in coming to grips with the flaw at the heart of "the West" (more evident now than ever) that makes it hard for the world to breathe. Thinking about the weather in the Texas Panhandle always brings the power of wind to mind, along with the small windmills (often made of wood) that were commonplace when I was growing up there. The displacement of those windmills (sources of decentralized, local power) by massive windfarms that centralize and distribute power from wind turbines as tall as skyscrapers is a theme that has haunted my thinking for years. Panhandle weather has a way of putting us in our place, so I have often found it a good source of inspiration in thinking about "power to the people." This painting is one more gesture in that direction.
- Subject Matter: abstract
- Created: November 2020
- Collections: abstracts, acrylic, landscapes