And once inside, this photo captures much of what I found evocative during my stay so far in this space... The art piece (3 by 4 ft) of a black bear and human hand with a blue berry... on knee level.... This was the image that I found difficult to engage for the first while but then by day five I was able to get into it... I like the reflections on the glass cover over this print (entitled: "Blueberry", Oct. 1981, 8/10 print, artist illegible but begins with a 'W')....
Yes, this large print has one piece of color, a small blueberry in blue color in the human hand.... now, just take time if you will to imagine and interpret what this image might be communicating. I found it had so many many layers it was overwhelming.... but as usual, I just begin to work with it using spontaneous reflective writing and then began to add in the quotes I had recorded from many of Pete's books taken at (near) random from his shelves....
The following is the poetic inquiry (one of a series, I suspect) where I take the "random" quotes on fear and fearlessness that I found in Pete's book collection and then interspersed them with my own reflections on the "Blueberry" art piece in the living room. I am quite happy with the result in this first of what I'm calling BLACK N' BLUE MAN-I-PULATION. You can see what you get out of this poetic collage.... let me know if you like. I may write more in depth about this later.
Black n’ Blue[1] Man-i-Pulation-1
They streamed fearless
from the forest[2] chanting
it is bravado
to believe that we are now immune to these killers[3]
desireless—virtually unmoved the beast of fears
shadows over the in-sighting of its seller
man-i-pulation
black-blue eco-stabilitation
a million, no a billion
years
well
without
the
hand
of the
free
As we continued up the long aisle
the choir began
to sing
‘Be Not Afraid’[4] as artist-curator
animal-human
tandem taught
the
lessons:
at the level
of our
knees
growth and resilience
an e-con-amie
singing:
have you ever been afraid of growing up?[5]
this in itself was enough
autoethnographically speaking,
enough
enough
enough
to evoke in us
children
a deep
sense
of pity and fear[6]
spherical terror-laden
stained of natural
blue ink
on the eyebrow
of the white-saited sheets….
delicate evolved
homo-fingerlings
holding
the
blue pearl
of want
a man-i-pulation
desireless instinct
population-- one
left
only
this
one
earth
archetypal
proportion
--relational
--this fear about inequality
won’t
wash
either[7]
much fear is
learned
animals also
learn
fear
to
avoid
pain[8]
many island species have calmly
met
their doom
through
fearlessness[9]
-R. Michael Fisher
June 5, 2015
[1] Inspired by the home library, the art piece (“Blueberry” by artist ‘W’(?), Oct. 1981, print 8 out of 10) in apartment 709 of Pete Sarsfield, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
[2] Excerpt (p. 150), from Whitt, L. (2010). Tecumseh’s return: the quakes of 1811-12. Prairie Fire, 31(3), 149-50.
[3] Excerpt (p. xii), from Garrett, L. (2000). Betrayal of trust: The collapse of global public health. NY: Hyperion.
[4] Excerpt (p. 19), from Corkum, T. (2010). Notes toward a film about my childhood. Prairie Fire, 31(2), 17-27.
[5] Ibid., p. 19.
[6] Excerpt (p. 162), from Mitchell, J. H. (1990). Living at the end of time. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
[7] Excerpt (p. 259), from Gould, S. J. (2003). The hedgehog, the fox, and the magister’s box: Mending the gap between science and the humanities. NY: Harmony Books.
[8] Excerpts (pp. 53, 50), from Masson, J. M., and McCarthy, S. (1995). When elephants weep: The emotional lives of animals. NY: Delacorte Press.
[9] Excerpt (p. 61), from Livingston, J. A. (1994). Rogue primate: An exploration of human domestication. Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books.