J.S. ABSHER
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Burial of Anyce Shepherd
    • Night Weather
    • Mouth Work
    • Love Letters of a Mississippi Lawyer
    • Buy Burial of Anyce Shepherd
    • Buy Night Weather
  • Poetry
    • Weeding
    • Winter Beeches
    • Traveling Inside My Room
    • Selected Poems in Magazines & Journals
  • Projects
    • My Own Life
    • “Pluck Enough”: The Winston-Salem Riot of 1895
    • Life Stories
  • Events
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Burial of Anyce Shepherd
    • Night Weather
    • Mouth Work
    • Love Letters of a Mississippi Lawyer
    • Buy Burial of Anyce Shepherd
    • Buy Night Weather
  • Poetry
    • Weeding
    • Winter Beeches
    • Traveling Inside My Room
    • Selected Poems in Magazines & Journals
  • Projects
    • My Own Life
    • “Pluck Enough”: The Winston-Salem Riot of 1895
    • Life Stories
  • Events
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Strange Arts & Visual Delights

A Blog

Imitation: A Case

12/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​This website features the work of a great-aunt I never knew, Cynthia Reeves. She was the legitimate child of John Andrew Reeves, and through him the half-sister of my paternal grandfather, Elbert. My father thought that Elbert’s temper and irascibility stemmed from his illegitimacy, but I have my doubts. Such births were not uncommon in the NC mountains, as family trees, DNA tests, and family  stories attest; beyond that, I have learned from Cynthia Reeves’ daughter-in-law that Elbert was welcomed to Reeves family events and recognized as John Andrews’ son.
 
Cynthia created a number of paintings in imitation of Asian characters. This one has no title or date, but I keep it near in my office—in part because it is damaged (it has noticeable brown spots, from age or water perhaps, not visible in this photo) and (so I imagine) needs to be tended; in part because it represents the odd status of art works in relationship to “real life.” It is not unlike those translations of East Asian poems that were so influential in the development of free verse, even though the originals followed quite strict rules—rules that, according to Milosz, we can only approximate in English. But losing the rhythmic qualities of the original poems allows the images the image to become more expressive (Czeslaw Milosz, “Against Incomprehensible Poetry,” in To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays (FSG, 2001, 380).

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.