Perfect Pairings, Evans’s “Peace Piece” & Sapiro’s Skies

Tags

art, beauty, Bill Evans, inspiration, jazz, Maurice Sapiro, music, Paintings, peace

Reflections on Golden Pond by Maurice Sapiro

Bill Evans’s “Peace Piece” is “an unrehearsed modal composition that he recorded for his “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” LP in 1958. It is hailed as one of the most beautiful and evocative solo piano improvisations ever recorded.”

I discovered this music at Ken Chawkins’s website The Uncarved Block, and I quite agree. I played it over and over again, it was so soothing and deliciously eloquent. You can read more about this work and Bill Evans, who is considered by some as the world’s greatest jazz pianist, at the link above.

“Peace Piece” pairs so beautifully with the evocative artwork of Maurice Sapiro, which shares the same sense of depth and richness. I discovered Sapiro’s work years ago when I first began blogging, and I’ve been a fan ever since.  His ethereal, dreamlike images capture ‘the moment when natures fuses light and air.” From that fusing comes a haunting beauty and deep, abiding peace. Like Evans’s “Peace Piece.”

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. 

Dance of the Clouds by Maurice Sapiro, oil on panel

Hammomasstet Sunburst

Any Port in a Storm

Mist

Painting Gold on the Water

Skylight II

The Subtle Nuance

Moonglow

The Six-Foot Sunset

Orient Point, Full Moon

Moon, Clouds and Falls

 

 

Self Portrait – “Melt into that Fierce Heat of Living”

Tags

"A Sunset to Remember", "Fire in the Earth", "Self Portrait", art, David Whyte, Maurice Sapiro, poetry

A Sunset to Remember by Maurice Sapiro

Self Portrait

by David Whyte

It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

From “Fire in the Earth”

It’s such a pleasure to find poetry and art that come together to speak the very thing you need to say, the very thing that captures you, where you are, now, this minute.  My deep gratitude to poets and artists everywhere, and today, especially to these two.  You can find more of their work at these links.

Maurice Sapiro Art Gallery

David Whyte Poetry