"I asked people to e-mail me a wish, and I wrote many hundreds of their wishes into these works. Etched in glass and with writing layered on top of writing, the wishes remain mostly secret/illegible, but they embody 3-D images of blow balls, wishies, soffione and pusteblume. In releasing a private wish to me, I hoped it might become more tangible to the wisher. Denis Brown, Dublin, February 2009"
I've always loved dandelions. There's something very magical about their shape, texture, the way those little umbrella seeds take flight with the slightest breeze and how they are at their most beautiful right before all those seeds are gone and their life ends.
Denis Brown manages to capture all of these elements in his series and the idea of secrets etched within every one adds even more magic.
Love it!
Side Note
We've been reading poetry by Don McKay in English for the past week and a half and this is one of my favourites.
Some Functions of a Leaf
To whisper. To applaud the wind
and hide the Hermit thrush.
To catch the light
and work the humble spell of photosynthesis
(excuse me sir, if I might have one word)
by which it's changed to wood.
To wait
willing to feed
and be food
To die with style:
as the tree retreats inside itself,
shutting off the valves at its
extremities
to starve in technicolour, then
having served two hours in a children's leaf pile, slowly
stir its vitamins into the earth.
To be the artist of mortality.
