tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71709452024-09-02T04:16:31.676-04:00Rubies in Crystal<center><big>RUBIES IN CRYSTAL</big></center><br>
<center>Does language hover between my nerve endings and the world, or is language my skin itself?<br>
Sheath of feeling. Words groping to touch air.</center>Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.comBlogger2109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-79829208907675416452024-06-09T09:41:00.005-04:002024-06-09T12:32:29.642-04:00Woman with Flowers 7.1(7th sketch in series, first iteration of this one)Woman with Flowers Flowers, props upholding the woman.The flowers, fragrant,imaginary.The flowers, blossominginto death. Clearly, I need to work on that hand!Below it is better drawn. Also, since the paper is a bit larger than the scanner, I photomerged two images (still issue in one corner), colour-corrected the paper and Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-9377444452297013842024-04-16T10:01:00.000-04:002024-04-16T10:01:22.419-04:00Self-Portrait with a Fascinator 2016On Monday, I walked, buying frames from two stores in different parts of the city, then went to the Art Bar Poetry Series in the evening, about 16,000 steps/13.1km. Part of a group art show and poetry reading on Sunday. I spent the morning searching for a few paintings. All I’ve done, really, is some self portraits because I belonged to a self portrait group on Facebook for a few years.Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-10449499461006450182023-08-09T10:23:00.005-04:002023-08-09T10:23:58.531-04:00A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' PaintingsA video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them.Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E___
Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-7002974541892922952022-10-23T19:04:00.002-04:002022-10-23T19:05:56.474-04:00On the Unity of Assemblage and PoemIn Split Mask and UnfurlFlowerring, the mask came first. A weltanschauung grew around it, accoutrements, fabrics, a ‘look’ enmeshed with the theme, and I felt a nascent poem emerging. When I write an afterpoem to perform in an assemblage, mask, persona, it is always about the topic that the ensemble is presenting, and there is also reference to my being inside the guise, what it’s like to be the Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-21448718415534212922022-10-22T12:34:00.005-04:002022-10-22T12:36:16.526-04:00Halloween Assemblage -Getting thereWhat I started with. Where I got to was like painting with photo programs. Two lights set up, one to the right and one on the table. Look forward to clearing the chaos of my living room and putting all this stuff away. But I still want to try long black boots and a leather corset I bought at maybe 63, my first one! Those shiny catches on the cheap Amazon one need black nail polish or Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-53548525932940145572022-10-20T10:56:00.003-04:002022-10-20T10:56:34.197-04:00Between 3 photo programs, approaching what I soughtFrom yesterday's shoot. The lighting was all wrong, but, with time and patience and a willingness to use different photo programs, I was able to get the darkness I wanted.Basically, I am trying to get some images of this assemblage so I can see what I've composed and write of the 'being' who's emerging, if that's possible. Also, it is helping to see how to tweak things - like, I'll wear black Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-12303800709372642732022-10-19T19:58:00.000-04:002022-10-19T19:58:11.680-04:00Oh, my Halloween Assemblage!I've had what seems negative reactions to the assemblage I am creating for my Halloween poetry and music event. It's been a huge amount of work, attempting to video (tons of problems spread over days) and finally I got some clips in focus - though the light wasn't right - and one person who looked at these images seemed very ticked off when she saw them, saying only, We're supposed to wear Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-58924865366488521742022-10-16T12:29:00.005-04:002022-10-16T12:52:07.849-04:00Test___
Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-9250232383904471732022-05-02T14:28:00.016-04:002022-05-11T09:04:16.895-04:00Unwindings & The Unansweringdirect link: https://youtu.be/Foyvq1uDCM8This is a video of a reading at Minstrels & Bards* Spring 2022 for an upcoming show.
For Calling In The Muse, May 1 - July 13, 2022, an on-line show by Erica Ross curated from her Open Studio sessions, I share two poems written in 2022, Unwindings and The Unanswering. These poems share my inner perceptions in, hopefully, a language that is Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-27294623713095683972021-10-22T21:23:00.006-04:002021-10-22T21:41:34.584-04:00Alchemical Wheels: A Portrait of a Painting & a Near Death Experience (a silent video)direct link: https://youtu.be/5mh83U0bhisAlchemical Wheels: Portrait of a Painting & a Near Death Experience (a silent video)Alchemical texts are riddles. Writing about visionary experience is impossible. Here goes…the circle dips down & two become oneopalescence of the self, golden pearl risingA psychic and artistic journey encircling a dream of alchemical wheels emerging on each Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-63698793693464837422021-09-05T13:57:00.006-04:002021-09-06T10:31:03.264-04:00Self-Portrait After an Alchemical DreamSelf-portrait after an Alchemical dream. ©Brenda Clews 2021. 20"x26", charcoal on Yupo paper.
[Adding the original dream & something on the process of what's appeared in this preparatory sketch for a possible painting, if you'd like to know what it's about.]
Original dream
…red spots develop under my cheeks, and as I powder them, they become raised wheels, one on each side, which the thick Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-63050239190925319062021-07-27T23:16:00.013-04:002021-08-03T09:39:42.628-04:00Fruiting BodiesDirect link: https://youtu.be/B47jC2hl2e0Fruiting Bodies is writing begun during lockdown and stay-at-home orders. When you are alone, you don't have a sense of yourself-in-context of the society in which you are a viable subject. You move through your rooms invisible to yourself, you don't think about how you look, and aren't dealing, one hopes, with your otherness among people. Race, Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-88813217209440961482021-05-11T23:00:00.001-04:002021-05-11T23:00:51.780-04:00Tulip on TulipAn open studio that my friend Erica is offering. I had no idea what I’d do this time. Sometimes showing up and allowing the inspiration of the moment is the way to go. Grabbed this and that and a chalk pastel and Taylor’s chalk of tulips wilded on paper. No plans to keep the pastel which will go out with the tulips, but they make an interesting photograph.
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Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-65893284085241287132021-01-21T17:20:00.002-05:002021-01-21T17:20:46.125-05:00Portrait in Black & WhiteDrawn with graphite putty and a 4B pencil on yupo paper an hour or so ago.__
Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-65365728805498113932020-10-22T15:29:00.006-04:002020-10-24T17:47:53.532-04:00Archeology of Water This began with an image of memory scrawled in a notebook in April 2019 that I knew I would work with, either in a poem, or perhaps video. That note, 'memories carved on other memories like archeological layers that disintegrate, losing their definition under the press of time,' evolved into this filmsoundpoem of at least 50 layers all wrapped into each other as they dissolve. In May 2020, I Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-33991935993998879052020-08-22T15:07:00.002-04:002020-10-24T17:21:08.242-04:00'Pull Down the Northern Lights for Chandeliers,' Zoom video August 20, 2020 "I'd dance to death to evoke it." "Who in me writes?"It was a rich, varied poetry evening where we read, talked about process, and asked questions. I'm still integrating what everyone said. An evening of inspiration. I would like to thank my features, Elana Wolff, Michael Mirolla, Margaret Christakos and Jeff Cottrill for their superlative poems, readings and expressions of Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-30062925309952759642020-07-21T10:44:00.001-04:002020-07-21T10:45:14.981-04:00Crawling Out of the MorassA preliminary sketch that I hope to work on in the coming days. Photo with electric light during a dark thunderstorm. Self-portrait, stick and water-soluble graphite, 20"x26". Crawling out from a deeply troubling family crisis.___
Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-1640429881470800892020-06-20T11:00:00.001-04:002020-10-24T17:25:36.172-04:00The Book of Night Women by Marlon JamesJune 20, 2020Today I am silent. Between The Book of Night Women, by Marlon James, and the ballet dancer, Sergei Polunin, who I watch on YouTube. One, grippingly violent, a story of the slave trade in Jamaica, in beautiful prose, in a seamless, perfect and mesmerizing dialect; the other, one the best dancers in the world, spins and leaps that are superhuman, a force de majeure, but shy, Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-75230110796752651542020-06-16T09:30:00.001-04:002020-10-24T17:22:53.032-04:00The Salt of the Earth, directed by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro SalgadoJune 16, 2020The Salt of the Earth, directed by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. France, 2014.Rich blacks, almost coppery greys, luminosities of light, whites sheer like silk shining, Salgado's work, grandeur, a vast scale. In his humanity, we see the terror of us, how we are victim to our own cruelties. His golddiggers, a hive of ants in the pit, farmers, dying Rwandans, Ethiopian skeletal Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-83881201922265874042020-06-14T08:00:00.001-04:002020-10-24T17:30:13.737-04:00Clara, in Allende’s The House of SpiritsJune 14, 2020
Clara, in Allende’s The House of Spirits is, I think, my favourite character in all of literature. Psychic, clairvoyant, telekinetic, someone who could draw many people to her, helper of the poor, I’ve only just read her and am integrating her still. I suspect she is the real writer of the novel and the narrator draws his story from her copious notebooks. Others… Fevvers in AngelaBrenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-18824189082746991472020-06-12T05:30:00.003-04:002020-10-24T17:32:04.548-04:00Isabel Allende’s, The House of SpiritsAnother day of nothing. Up till 2am reading Isabel Allende’s, The House of Spirits. Such lives - an incredible book, its social commentary, magic realism. Tired, though. Hammered shelves into the cat closet to put everything stored there so I can remove the kitty litter lid easily for daily cleaning. Felt slightly frazzled all day, with loose electrical wires hanging off my body that should be Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-54101178809479268052020-06-11T16:50:00.003-04:002020-10-24T17:33:53.550-04:00Djuna Barnes’ NightwoodA lost day. Where tasks overtake, and not even. Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood on earbuds—the scene where the doctor is dressed in women’s clothes, a wig, lipstick and false eyelashes and is disappointed when Nora enters his chaotic room with the full chamber pot. His soliloquy on the meaning of life. Tying parcels to a dolly and returning them at the post office in the drug store & the guy refusingBrenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-4595922496103355012020-05-25T13:04:00.006-04:002020-10-24T17:34:43.005-04:00Sir Gawain and the Green KnightWalking the neighbourhood with my dog listening to a podcast by academics on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Composed in the 1400s, it lay undiscovered until the 1900s. The world of chivalry and a beheaded green night who picks up his head and throws a challenge at the knight before he gallops off. The married woman who tests him and gives him her magic girdle. Nature, which will lop you off, Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-3091683174750421432019-12-22T15:46:00.004-05:002019-12-22T15:46:40.243-05:00Happy Holidays!
Wishing you all a happy, healthy, wonderful and loving Holiday Season! xoxo
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Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7170945.post-69762280556115526152019-09-10T18:30:00.000-04:002019-09-10T18:30:05.718-04:00Self Portrait #11
Self Portrait #11, ©Brenda Clews 2019. 18"x24" (cropped), oil on canvas.
August 25, 2019
A resemblance to me is actually developing after eleven drawings and paintings! While this mirror self-portrait looks more like me, I'm told I'm still making myself look older than I am. Ah, well... lol!
This was my last painting in my spare room studio since it has been rented out. I've learned a Brenda Clewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01400505552810078505noreply@blogger.com0