Romantics seek fusion, modernists seek pathos

Romantics seek fusion, modernists seek pathos.

Words: Luke Gibbons, Image: JesseJames

To sketch and paint

The artist JesseJames used to cycle out into the countryside on the outskirts of Firhouse to sketch and paint.

The Place of the Flying Ham

The sense of solitude was immense. I could not see or realise my own body, and I seemed to exist merely in my perception of the waves and of the crying birds, and of the smell of seaweed – JM Sygne, The Aran Islands (1906)

Manniken Pee Platz

At Jesse’s suggestion, at James’s instigation both, first Jesse, then James, in penumbra urinated, their sides contiguous, their organs of micturition reciprocally rendered invisible by manual circumposition, their gazes, first Jesse’s, then James’s, elevated to the projected luminous and semiluminous shadow.

Words: James Joyce (adapted). Image: JesseJames.

A summer’s day Inis Oírr, long ago

A summer’s day Inis Oírr, long ago.

Landscape may be said to exist

Landscape may be said to exist in the eye of the beholder, a beholder who perceives not so much the objective scene as the look of it, the looking at it.

Words: Louis le Brocquy. Image: JesseJames

The jaws of time

To look back through it along the headlands that stand as if fixed for all eternity, one behind another to the limits of vision, is to look into the jaws of time – Tim Robinson, Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage.

You are our television

Take it from me, a bystander, that when you are under the spell of your own time you are as interesting to watch as were those before; it is always the same plot: Soul – Soul. It was your humanity in response that adds life to it and makes tending it so worthwhile. You are our television – Dennis Severs 1948 – 1999

The JesseJames Seat, Inis Oirr

Jessica on the JesseJames Seat, Inis Oirr

The Zibaldone originated in Venice

The Zibaldone is a casual art form which originated in 14th century Venice where merchants used notebooks as part of their day to day business. Unlike their upper-class counterparts, who mostly stuck to Latin, these merchants wrote in the local Italian dialect. They were also more likely to bring together all kinds of work and play into one small, portable book. Alongside their workaday notes they drew boats and people and jotted down stories and other items of personal interest.