May 2022
Author's Note: Paloma is derived from Latin "palumbus" which means "dove," a symbol of peace. It is the name Picasso gave to his daughter.
Pablo Picasso - "Paloma sur fond rouge"
My wife loves art and it is her birthday. Because of this, I am looking for Picasso on eBay. Among the thousands of lithographs signed & numbered in pencil, I find "Paloma sur fond rouge," & bid the balance of my bank account. Now I am in electronic Picassoland, among the mixed media, how prolific he was, and varied, and how unlike the literary artist, bound to one voice, denied their periods during a life, confined so often to a single genre. But this does not matter to my wife. She will frame this tortured thing I have ordered, praising Picasso, his artistic gluttony, his infant self, how he left his true believers, the women, a man after his own heart.
Originally published in Surfaces, March Street Press, 2006
©2022 Michael Gessner
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