| “Stone | put | upon | stone | |||||
| and | chamber | beside | chamber” | |||||
| D’Arcy | Thompson | |||||||
| “Mud put | ||||||||
| upon mud, | ||||||||
| lifted | ||||||||
| to make | room,” | |||||||
| Robert | Creeley | |||||||
| word | hod | |||||||
| put | ||||||||
| upon | house | |||||||
| word | ||||||||
| shell | ||||||||
| soma | stone | |||||||
| put | ||||||||
| upon | ||||||||
| stone | ||||||||
| put | log | upon | log | cube | upon | cube | ||
| pier | upon | pier | unit | upon | unit | |||
| post | up | & | unus | put | upon | unus | ||
| road | upon | road | ||||||
| page | upon | page | ||||||
| wood | in | face | upon | face | ||||
| paint | put | upon | paint | wall | put | upon | wall | |
| one | part | upon | part | upon | ||||
| slab | on | slab | load | put | upon | load | ||
| hod | word | onus | upon | onus | ||||
| line | put | upon | line | word | upon | stone | ||
| bowl | put | mud | in | |||||
| hand | put | upon | hand | a | pan | upon | a | |
| tone | drum | stone | upon | |||||
| note | upon | note | a | lifted | scuttle | |||
| note | upon | row | in | a | ||||
| sign | sing | stone | mud | call | ||||
| name | put | upon | cut | word | in | |||
| rune | put | upon | stone | bone | lifted | |||
| end | upon | end | a | tune | in | |||
CODA: wind upon wind wave upon wave cloud upon cloud grass upon grass leaf upon leaf sail upon sail hill upon hill cove around cove cliff upon cliff square upon square camp upon camp town upon town city upon city state upon state…wind upon wind wave upon wave cloud upon cloud cove around cove
The Coming of the Toads 
Very cool painting Joe – blue upon green upon blue upon yellow! My son played cricket with Darcy Thompson. Maybe a different one? Grey upon grey photograph very compelling.B
Have never played cricket. Should at least learn how it’s done. The US baseball season begins this weekend, my old team, the Dodgers, just opened the season in Australia, in Sydney; was there any discussion of that in your neck of the woods? But this D’Arcy – the “stone put upon stone” quote is from a book of lectures, 1860’s. I came across it haphazardly, looking for the Creeley poem on line, but I had not remembered the Creeley words correctly. I had remembered he said “stone,” and not “mud.” Though I have it in an old anthology, “A Controversy of Poets,” 1965 (100 years after the lectures text). According to this Amazon page you can pick one up for $0.01. Really! That’s amazing. Poetry – you can’t give it away. This D’Arcy’s son seems to have written an interesting book, “On Growth and Form.” And there does appear to be a Thompson / Wentworth connection that goes to Australia, some Scottish, some Irish, but I’ve lost the thread, or given it up.
Cricket is a beautiful game and played in a lot of countries. Can’t wait to play U.S.
As for baseball, the Dodgers were met with sell out crowds in Sydney. Baseball has been a fledgling sport here for many years it seems. A great friend of mine played for many years and was a real pioneer of the sport here. Speaking of sports you may be interested in Royal or Real Tennis. This is the game from which modern tennis was derived. I have just stopped playing Royal Tennis after a 20 year stint. It is a fantastic game and played by some really interesting people, I think you would enjoy it.
I will pursue D’arcy Thompson, he sounds interesting. B
Thanks, B. Will check out Real Tennis. Have read some things with cricket scenes – Wodehouse has some cricket settings here and there.
Layers again, upon and upon and around. Love your long painting, its depth. Could be one panel of a Triptych.
Triptych: “chamber beside chamber.”
Thank you for the link ‘On Growth and Form’ Joe, right up my alley. I just love this kind of thing and I will find a copy. Enjoy your painting, we have a rainy autumn day here and it is such a relief after a long, hot and dry spell, so I am looking forward to spending some time in my studio. I shall send you a picture of any progress made on that front – but then again maybe not. That’s life.B
Yes, that is life, so it goes, but always like to see the artwork on your blog.