The Inspiration.............
One must close your eyes and open the mind to envision such a place as Xanadu- as in the lines of the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This is a poem many had to memorize in high school and to one individual became a favorite for many years, so much so she commissioned this painting to bring the words to life. This is my interpretation of the ethereal dream like state in which the author immersed himself describing his Utopia.
This piece not only depicts a far off place within the imagination- but it's new home lies in a magical land as well- our Utopia, Australia. It just arrived to the clients home and she was thrilled to say the least. Pauline is a delightful lady and good friend -whom I came to know via face book, through a mutual friend. She is friends with Norm, a life long friend of the family.( More info below) She saw my work and we started visiting more than a year ago- as a result it has prompted several commissions and prints by her friends. What an incredible blessing to make friends on the other side of the world.
Kubla Khan
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately Pleasure-Dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers was girdled ’round,
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But, oh! That deep, romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill, athwart a cedarn cover:
A savage place! As holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath the waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her Demon Lover!
And from this chasm with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this Earth in fast, thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced,
Amid whose swift, half-intermittent burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail;
And ‘midst these dancing rocks at once and ever,
It flung up momently the sacred river!
Five miles meandering with ever a mazy motion,
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.
And ‘mid this tumult, Kublai heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the Dome of Pleasure
Floated midway on the waves,
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device:
A sunny Pleasure-Dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such deep delight ‘twould win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome within the air!
That sunny dome, those caves of ice,
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry: “Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle ’round him thrice,
And close your eyes in holy dread:
For he on honeydew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise!”
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A reflection- life sometimes tears at us, threatening our Utopia but maintaining the vision will perhaps see us through.
A little more info- Normie Rowe- Australia's Elvis Presley)who just so happened to save my husbands life in the Jungles of Vietnam, when pinned down in a fire fight. Literally rolled up in a tank and asked " Hey Mate, Ya need a lift? Norm is a life long friend of the family, as are all his mates who have welcomed us into their home while visiting over the years. In regards to the theory of six degrees of separation- sometimes the ties to one another are so fundamental- there is no separation.
My Utopia- a simple life,where we are safe, love and are loved, share our gifts and show kindness.
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