Bern Porter Found

A frog can support itself splayed out on the points of a group of rising rushes, just as if the rushes were a lily pad. There must be a metaphor here, or a haiku. Rushes are pointy but the frog does not seem to mind and even appears to be asleep.

About a month ago I began reading a book that's been on my shelves for years, James Schevill's where to go what to do when you are Bern Porter. Then I discovered that there is - right now -an exhibition of Bern Porter's work at MOMA.





Here's a Found Poem by Bern:

          ABRAHAM LINCOLN

FAILED IN BUSINESS AT AGE                           31
DEFEATED FOR LEGISLATURE AT AGE        32
FAILED BUSINESS AGAIN AT                            34
SWEETHEART DIED AT                                       35
HAD NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AT                     36
DEFEATED IN ELECTION AT                              38
DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS AT                         43
DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS AT                         46
DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS AT                         48
DEFEATED FOR SENATE AT                               55
DEFEATED FOR VICE-PRES. AT                         56
DEFEATED FOR SENATE AT                               58
ELECTED PRESIDENT AT                                     60


John Perreault's Artopia blog on the Porter exhibition is a good introduction with videos and images if you are not familiar with Bern's work - and even if you are, it's a pleasure to read.

Image credit

Frog Pond

Walking around the rim of the pond tonight I counted 9 frogs. Now and then I heard a vrump and a ribbit that gave away the presence of other frogs under the rocks.

Is there a Maine aesthetic that can be sussed out, even in the work of artists who live far away? Were they born here? Did they spend time at Skowhegan, or simply dip a toe in the waters of some summer camp at Pemadumcook Lake? I think the experience of place is indelibly imprinted in an artist’s work no matter how far she may roam. And I don’t believe you have to be born here to be inoculated with the germ.

The giveaway in an artist’s work could be the green-orange matrix operative in his paintings. It could be the love of water, because you’ll never die of thirst in Maine. It could be the certain light that inhabits Alex Katz’s paintings. It could be that it’s always landscape bound. We have more landscape here than anything else, and so even abstraction, for instance the complexity of line in Fred Lynch and Anna Hepler’s drawings, is derived from the confusion of natural phenomena that we see around us every day. If you’ve read this far, I’d really like to know your thoughts on the subject, and whether there are other operative motivations than landscape.