Fugitive / Blue

There are two kinds of blue in nature: the pigment in
the petals of an iris and the structural blue in the
feathers of a jay. The fugitive pigment fades (the
speckles on a trout drain away minutes from the water,
a robin's eggshell turns white in the sun). The
structure remains, angling light, true blue, like the
return on a pinball machine or the leftover light from
an ancient star.

This is what I see. Start with the clarity of a blue
eye. Shine a light into the dark forest and the color
of the light reflected back from each pair of eyes
will tell you which animal it is. The hoofed animals
reflect luminescent blue, nightjars orange and
primates amber. Why is the sky blue? Blue is the only
color left when all the scattering is finished. Blue
is the color of memory - like a Cyanotype: seductive,
comforting and poisonous. Heartbreak eventually fades
like an old photo. In the 18th century the invention
of synthetic indigo made the trip to the "Indies"
unnecessary and spawned an insatiable demand for blue
silk ball gowns, the color of wealth. There is also
the deep blue water world off the continental shelf.
Once I swam out from an island and suddenly,
dizzyingly, I was engulfed in dark silent blue as the
bottom dropped away to negative infinity.

No two people see or feel the same things: from Miles
Davis to Nick Drake to Joni Mitchell to Strauss' Blue
Danube; the Venetian ceilings of Tiepolo, the
fishermen's jeopardy of Winslow Homer, sky-blue
popsicles, blue movies, the broken Wedgewood cup on
the mantle, the blue grotto in Capri, denim jeans, the
remnant blue in the eye of a bronze Greek wrestler, or
the ribbon of a river in Japanese scroll.

Simple marks signify the monumental. Splashing color
onto paper is the equivalent of thrusting your hands
into the dirt, spilling handfulls. Peter Hutchison
asks, who really could claim to be an action painter
after all? There's a zen story I'm trying to remember
about a master brush painter summoned to create a
temple screen. He ground ink for weeks while the monks
watched expectantly, growing impatient as the season
passed to autumn. Then suddenly, as they had all
turned to the sky at the passing of a flock of geese,
the master laid down five strokes and was finished.

-- Mark Adams

The Schoolhouse is located at 494 Commercial Street, in Provincetown's historic East End Gallery District. The galleries are open daily from 11, and always by appointment. For information, please call Michael Carroll(508) 487.4800. xt 105