Most painting in the European tradition was painting the mask. Modern art rejected all that. Our subject matter was the person behind the mask.
quote by Robert Motherwell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Right Mask
One night a poem came up to a poet
From now on, it said, you must wear a mask.
What kind of mask? asked the poet.
A rose mask, said the poem.
I've used it already, said the poet,
I've exhausted it.
Then wear the mask that's made out of
a nightingale's song, use that mask.
Oh, it's an old mask, said the poet,
it's all used up.
Nonsense, said the poem, it's the perfect mask,
still, try on the god mask,
now that mask illuminates heaven.
It's a tight mask, said the poet,
and the stars crawl about in it like ants.
Then try on the troubador's mask, or the singer's mask,
try on all the popular masks.
I have, said the poet, but they fit so easily.
The poem was getting impatient,
it stamped its feet like a child,
it screamed. Then try on your own face,
try the one mask that terrifies,
the mask only you could possibly use,
the mask only you could wear out.
The poet tore at his face til it bled,
this mask? he yelled, this mask?
Yes, said the poem, yes.
But the poet was tired of masks,
he had lived too long with them,
he snatched at the poem and stuck it in his face.
Its screams were muffled, it wept, it tried to be lyrical,
it wriggled into his eyes and mouth.
Next day his friends were afraid of him,
he looked so distorted.
Now it's the right mask, said the poem, the right mask.
It clung to him lovingly and never let go again.
poem by Brian Patten
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
Are you my friend ?
Are you my plumber ?
Are you my God ?
What do you do ?
Wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Complicated crushed up disappointed squirming angry thrusting stabbing regretting starving greedy human alien being, struggling down the street, up the alley, in the elevator, through the party, to the office, in the bedroom, on your way to the morgue. Bullshitting, lying, doing a good deed or feeling loved barely possible. Aware of insatiable demands of not a society all around you. Chunky frat boys in their shorts, pimps with old semite eyes, sex hoochies of the jungle, sensitive smart alec college graduates, critics fronting franticly in New York city, every body in L.A just plain licking ass or having it licked, irony in place of balls, balls in place of brains, brains in place of soul, where is the soul?, where is the love?, where am i?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
which mask are you ?
song performed by by Iggy Pop
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Drop The Mask
(tim tickner, christopher ward, diana ross)
Look in the mirror, who do you see
Where is the man that you used to be
When you turn off the world and turn down the lights
Do you ever wonder who you are tonight
I knew you then, I love you now
You can call me up when it gets you down
Behind the shades theres someone real
Behind your eyes I wonder how you feel
This is me talking to you
Theres just one thing Im asking you to do
You gotta drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
No one knows what youre going through
Whatever it is, Ill be there for you
If you drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
I was there when it all began
I still remember the boy within the man
I understand what it means to run and hide
Theres so much that were holding onto deep down inside
This is me talking to you
The only thing that I want you to do
You gotta drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
No one knows what youre going through
Whatever it is, Ill be there for you
When you drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
Drop the mask
Drop the mask
Let down your guard, open your heart
Unlose your chains, dont be afraid
Drop the mask
Be yourself
Be yourself
Trust someone else
You gotta drop the mask
Let down your guard, oh you gotta drop the mask
Trust someone else
You gotta drop the mask
song performed by by Diana Ross
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Each painting has its own way of evolving...When the painting is finished, the subject reaveals itself.
quote by William Baziotes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Painting The Walls
painting the walls,
rolling over handprints,
cobwebs, and smoke stains....
over splashes of color,
over peels of time.
painting over the sounds
of voices whispering, laughing....
painting over tears hidden
from the world, from each other.
painting over running, and working,
working all day and half the night.
painting over children, and dreams,
folded like old clothes, and put away.
painting over notes from God,
that were often barely noticed...
painting over the nail that held
up the clock, hands moving slowly,
turning the seasons of living....
painting over the final words,
the last breath held in the hands,
of lives written in the grain....
the testimony of each feeling....
painting the walls,
and brushing the corners,
as if we never lived!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Because the mask is your face, the face is a mask, so I'm thinking of the face as a mask because of the way I see faces is coming from an African vision of the mask which is the thing that we carry around with us, it is our presentation, it's our front, it's our face.
quote by Faith Ringgold
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ballade Of Modest Confession
My reading is extremely deep and wide;
And as our modern education goes—
Unique I think, and skilfully applied
To Art and Industry and Autres Choses
Through many years of scholarly repose.
But there is one thing where I disappoint
My numerous admirers (and my foes).
Painting on Vellum is my weakest point.
I ride superbly. When I say I 'ride'
The word's too feeble. I am one of those
That dominate a horse. It is my pride
To tame the fiercest with tremendous blows
Of heel and knee. The while my handling shows
Such lightness as a lady's. But Aroint
Thee! Human frailty with thy secret woes!
Painting on Vellum is my weakest point.
Painting on Vellum: not on silk or hide
Or ordinary Canvas: I suppose
No painter of the present day has tried
So many mediums with success, or knows
As well as I do how the subject grows
Beneath the hands of genius, that anoint
With balm. But I have something to disclose—
Painting on Vellum is my weakest point.
Envoi
Prince! do not let your Nose, your royal Nose,
Your large imperial Nose get out of Joint.
For though you cannot touch my golden Prose,
Painting on Vellum is my weakest point.
poem by Hilaire Belloc
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I am only interested in painting the actual person, in doing a painting of them, not in using them to some ulterior end of art. For me, to use someone doing something not native to them would be wrong.
quote by Lucian Freud
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A painting is finished when the subject comes back, when what has caused the painting to be made comes back as an object.
quote by Howard Hodgkin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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untitled abstract painting of Custer's Last Stand
Untitled abstract painting of Custer’s last stand
an abstract painting of custer’s last stand
Hangs in the Montana Museum of Modern Art
A fish with a halo and many Indians mating
And no name tag makes this painting, stand apart
Montanans know the title of this portrait
Although no name tag is shown
Yet, as the gaze falls upon it
the title is intuitively known,
the last words that were spoken
from this famous man’s mouth
As the battle of the Big horn
Began to go south
Oddly enough, as in the painting
his last words were not prayer
Though the words; “copulation and Indians, “
“Fish And Holy, “ were there.
The title of the painting and Custer’s last words
Weren’t from Romans or Corinthians.
They were simply “Holy Mackerel
Look at all the F#@*in’ Indians
poem by David Whalen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Mask That Covers My Pain
I wear a mask,
A mask that covers my pain,
I wear a smile,
A smile to cover my frown,
Secretly I am sad,
No ones here to hold me,
No ones here to love me,
I have no one,
My mask covers the pain in my eyes,
My mask covers the pain in my face,
My mask covers the pain in my heart,
My mask covers the pain in me,
I am but alone,
I am but in pain,
I am the only one,
I put a mask on,
To cover my pain,
poem by Samantha Guinen
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Modesty is high in view.
A painting free of cost;
A painting with a tag;
A painting not for sale;
The third soars high in view.
24.10.2012
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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I think of painting without subject matter as music without words.
quote by Kenneth Noland
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I needed an outlet in high school and came across painting. I've actually been painting longer than I've been acting. A movie is a collaborative effort, and with painting you just have yourself.
quote by James Franco
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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But when I worked on a painting I would do it from a drawing but I would put certain things I was fairly sure I wanted in the painting, and then collage on the painting with printed dots or painted paper or something before I really committed it.
quote by Roy Lichtenstein
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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He's Back
You're with your baby
And you're parked alone
On a summer night
You're deep in love
But you're deeper in the woods
You think you're doin' alright
You heard a voice
Did you see that face
Or was it just a dream
It can't be real
That only happens, babe
On the movie screen
If you see him comin'
Get away if you can
He's a dangerous man
Throws a dangerous party man
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's going out tonight
Going to make his rounds to get his fill
Standing staight and tall
He's a ton of fun
And he's dressed to kill
You know you read he was gone
It surely is him
But he's back on the prowl
Again and again and again
Don't you know
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
You know you read he was gone
It surely is him
But he's back on the prowl
Again and again and again
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
song performed by by Alice Cooper
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Wearing It Now
People are around
I know I’ll be alright
The mask doesn’t hurt
No tears
Come from the mask
I put my own on
Thinking that’s the only way it should be
Becoming someone not even I can recognize
In the puddle on the ground
Stomping in it knowing this is not me
Then when the people go away
So does mask
This is the scene in the play I don’t know my lines
For I get scared and choke every time
Mine my mask just changes from
White-ish pink to a dark red
Where the mask simply goes from
Oh look at me I don’t do any thing wrong
To black showing it’s true colors
Whoever said black was all the rainbow mixed together
Is wring in this case
There is no other feeling other then black
Like truck tiers black
No sadness no joy just anger and hatred
The mask gets switched around from him to her
All the time I never know who is wearing it or
If the both of them are sharing it at the same time
So walking through that broken old door
That squeaks and carries on when you open it
You never know if this time
Will be the one time that will kill you
Or break your back
But you hope like heck you make it through
‘Cause if you don’t then you know your not
The only one the mask subjects
And the others will not survive without you
poem by Mrs. Cynosure
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I hail thee! Woman
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
Each day it is an awesome task
To cover her face with a mask
A different one she wears each day
A mask of beauty beneath a mask of love
A mask of pain embroided by sorrow
Lifes of loved ones lost
She would gladly like to re-borrow
She is the perfect player
She is the perfect mother
She is the perfect daughter
She is the perfect lover
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
There she wears her mask again
A mask of conniving sharpness and evil
And a parting deal with the devil
A mask of infinite ideas
And one of fictional loving care
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
Copyright 2006 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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The leader of men in warfare can show himself to his followers only through a mask, a mask that he must make for himself, but a mask made in such form as will mark him to men of his time and place as the leader they want and need.
quote by John Keegan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Beneath The Mask
Beneath the mask her wander lies
projecting an image for lovers eyes.
Such endless beauty my eyes behold,
under the mask she wears so bold
She hides behind her vain-full pride,
The twist and turn of storms inside.
She sits so still, so calm a girl
And guards with faith her hidden pearl.
Behold the mask covers her face
For between its cracks lies hidden grace
And beneath that mystic mask of wood
Lies secrets of a love so good
She needs to see through sudden glee
She needs not wear the mask for me.
In her glory I need to bask
For I love the girl who wear the mask.
Beneath the mask
There is a love and compassion
Inhibition and insecurities,
But there is also the girl I love
poem by C.F Francis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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