Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a winter’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Horizon’s changing hue
Power in the waves come due
Dashing on the shore that’s you
In aqua on the broken rocky land
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your father’s deeds
And why you’d need to set me free
I would not listen, I did not know how
Perhaps I’ll listen now
Amphitrite Point
Wild Pacific Trail
Ucluelet
Vancouver Island
British Columbia, Canada
Taken during travels, 2017
I can hardly think of that wondrous painting without Don McLeans powerfully gentle ode to Van Gogh, Vincent, playing in my mind. As I edited the photograph into form, the cadences and textures of McLean’s exceptional lyrical poetry wove patterns and themes in my mind.
Still editing the photograph, I began working the words, first in my mind then on the keyboard. It wasn’t long before I just copied the song’s first verse into the editor and began deconstructing it. Paraphrasing most lines, but keeping some mostly or entirely intact. I wasn’t far into that before I copied the chorus as well.
The result is a paraphrase of McLean’s original in form and words, borrowing heavily from the photograph for its imagery and exploring life experience for its story (a story I had no idea this process was going to tell, btw.)
Pix to Words 