Mixed media (acrylic, wood shavings, metal scrap, fence wire), 2023
Size: w 16″x h 12″ x h 1.5″ cradled birch panel
Part I of Triptych (I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration)
Destruction
Rubble, ash, splintered wood, stone dust, pulverized concrete. What remains after the bombing of cities and catastrophe of earthquakes.
The following two poems will probably never see publication, so I put them out here (written in the last few weeks).
Gods of Peace and War
We are the gods of grace
We come from away and far
To show you a safe place
To light your way with stars
We are the gods of war
We travel now in space
To show you death and fear
We look into your face
We are the gods of peace
We are the gods that are
War Is Here
War is here; we’ve been attacked
Death will come for thee and me
As it has for saints and fools.
Before that, time will crease our hearts
And fear will corrugate our souls.
npaulartworks 
The poems and the artwork in this post are very dark.
Thank goodness for your immense personal creativity that gives you an outlet for these strong emotions. Thank you for communicating your utter sadness about the state of the world.
I’m reading Octavia E. Butler’s parable of the Seed because so many artists told me that this is how we creatives need to think. It is set in 2024 and the world has gone through destruction. I’ve only just started, but I can tell that the young female protagonist will show me something and a way to go forward. Our world is vulnerable, but it is not yet murdered.
xoxo
It’s odd that these two poems as well as the triptych arrived to me without any preparation or subsequent (re)working on my part. The idea came for the triptych; I executed as if instructed. The poems came to me whole, the lines just as you see them. Usually I live with a poem over several days, tinkering, refining the rhythm and rhyme, and paintings take months for me to complete as they are made up of layers and layers with the the meaning and vision changing over time. As I have heard that artists say (often didn’t understand completely), in this case I was a conduit only, fortunately for my well being.
xo xo