Walls and Windows

The Change

(Note:The poems cannot be published in full for copyright reasons)

(1) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) The long slow abdomens surface in the night and eat my basil, marigolds. The sheen of their silver trail is the manna they leave, almost substance, proof of their existence, hunger…
(2) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) There is a theory that all the world is composed of a single element. In presocratic times, we believed every object was made of air, or water. And today we’re still searching for singularity, sifting…
(3) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) A new country is learning small creatures, the cornflowers I planted as an act of faith—in home, green. I’m learning the eddies, the tug of this new city, new magpies. Discerning the universe is a tricky business— tell me, what does it mean that my bicycle was stolen? My sweetheart teases me: you didn’t love it enough…
(4) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) I’m told the telephone was an inevitability, and harnessing fire— or at least learning how to tend flame, and the wheel which was dormant awhile, waiting to roll us home and afar. We’ve sought momentum since our first spark, a way to twirl faster, dance harder…
(5) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) The universe divides and divides. When I dream of the primordial stew, I see our skating rink in summer, marsh-marigolds and methane, the occasional remains of a lost cow buried and forgotten. Georgia saw the cosmos in old bones, the constellation of us halved and halved. Life is a riddle—because we are made by being broken…
(6) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) I continue to look for God, and I wonder if God’s searching for me too. Plato imagined souls drifting in the sphere of ideas, undone halves waiting to be made whole. I don’t know what I believe. I am certain of you, drawn home to me on your bicycle. I am homesick and wistful of cedar…
(7) Acrylic, yarn, tissue and fabric on canvas 2010, 220 x 87.5 cm (87 x 34.5 inches) The grocery clerk wrapped the protea in green paper and I softened as I watched him pull the pink ribbon, his lips press with the effort, his fading blue shirt untucked, only slightly. I can’t help myself, I see the pale white…
Walls and Windows from my Childhood Blue shutter at Mary's Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 18 x 24 inches Down the hill from the Conteh house Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 18 x 24 inches Kissy Corner (Freetown) Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 18 x 24 inches Mankapur's compound Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 20 x 24 inches This side of the balustrade Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 20 x 24 inches Sunlight, late afternoon Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 18 x 24 inches The children were here a moment ago Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 20 x 24 inches Where I learned to walk Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 24 x 24 inches Room 807, where I learned to love Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 18 x 24 inches Waiting for mangoes Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 24 x 24 inches Louvers at Jay's Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 12 x 17 inches All that remains Acrylic on Canvas 2009, 24 x 18 inches All artwork created by Jessica Hiemstra-van der Horst design and maintainance by Frederick Dierolf, last updated April 8, 2010 Home | Full Catalogue | News | Illustration | Private Art Lessons | Practical Soul Course | The artist | How to expect what you're not expecting | Contact