Composite Memories, Part IV , On the Beach, 17
The French word "goémon" carries a poetic resonance that its English counterpart, "wrack," lacks. It refers not only to seaweed washed ashore but also, in my interpretation, to all the treasures the sea offers up: the smooth, rounded pebbles that glisten with the meaning we give it , the multitude of seashells, the ghostly white squid bones we once adorned with feathers to sail in tidepools. There are the otherworldly Velella velella, the driftwood that we want to associate with a shipwreck, the sea glass, and the vibrant anemones and crustaceans inhabiting the tidepools—each a remnant of life at the threshold of an alternate, larger oceanic universe. How deeply is our imagination shaped by this line of demarcation between land, air, and sea?
The central shape in the painting is an amalgamation of all that "goémon" signifies to me. The setting of either sunset or sunrise marks another threshold, this time between night and day.
This image is one of 52 paintings in the series “On the Beach / Sur les bords de la mer,” the fourth part of my Magnum Opus, **Composite Memories**.
My words may pale in comparison to Serge Gainsbourg lyrics which I wish to share with you
PS: My words may pale in comparison to Serge Gainsbourg lyrics which I wish to share with you : (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmlzs_IxhE)
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