THE CANVAS

I Love You

A cloth canvas can be painted over and used again. In digital art another layer can be added to conceal or reveal something beneath. Light and life changes us; changes what we write and how we put things on the canvas.

Look at my lines which could have been

the shadow of swords fighting.

I could have been a field of colorful wildflowers

but the artist had been studying John Marin

and listening to the ocean after the storm

that tossed the red wooden vessel

onto the rocks dismasting her

shattering the rudder.

I might have been a calm lake

reflecting clouds and soaring birds

a summer cabin shimmering in my ripples.

There would have been a path to me

and a bench where two could be together

but the artist painted only one.

I could have been a night in the forest

the moon’s face radiant as it made its way

over the treetops taking lessons from the stars

on how to shine to illumine others.

What I could have been doesn’t matter.

I am an abstract. My message is for you to discover.

LJ Austin 2-26-23

ART: LJ Austin “The Last Plateau” 2017