Munch leaves. Molt. Rest. Molt
again. Self-reinvention is everything.
Spin many nests. Cultivate stinging
bristles. Don't get sentimental
about your discarded skins. Grow
quickly. Develop a yen for nettles.
Alternate crumpling and climbing. Rely
on your antennae. Sequester poisons
in your body for use at a later date.
When threatened, emit foul odors
in self-defense. Behave cryptically
to confuse predators: change colors, spit,
or feign death. If all else fails, taste terrible.
-"Advice from a Caterpillar" by Amy Gerstler from Dearest Creature, New York, Penguin Books: 2009.
The word enjambment comes from the French where it means to step over or to put legs across. In poetry, its function is similar; it means to break a phrase, a sentence, or a thought between two lines without benefit of punctuation. This sends a mixed message, increasing the attention of the reader/auditor. Who started the practice? The Elizabethan poets made much of it and, like many other things poetic and historic, it seems to date back to the catchall answer that was
Homer.
.
The caterpillar, curled in upon itself is like the painter. It seeks perfection through its solitary efforts. Like the artist leaning over his easel at night, the caterpillar will achieve a magical transformation. As you can see in Charles Seliger's Caterpillar with Sky, although the subject and the scope of the picture may be small, the artist's intentions are expansive, and no more sentimental than poet Amy Gerstler's imagined Lepidopteran monologue.
Charles Seliger (1926-2009) was an early abstract expressionist but, like a number of others I have mentioned in these columns, not so abstract as all that. Although it is not obvious from reproductions, Seliger worked with small canvases, eschewing the gigantic proportions of so many of his contemporaries, the better to achieve a sense of intimacy with his subjects.
Although he did not complete high school or attend art school, his interests encompassed biology, natural history, and physics. "My work, even when most abstract, reflects the natural world," Seliger wrote. His technique attracted the attention of New York artists in the 1940s; his paintings were shown at Peggy Guggenheim's famed "Art of This Century" gallery when he was just nineteen. Nevertheless, he worked at ordinary jobs during the day throughout his adult life.
For further reading: a tribute to Charles Seliger by Addison Parks at Artdeal magazine.
Image:
Charles Seliger - Caterpillar with Sky, 1949, Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica.
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