“Rubies drip to the earth, the berth of bleeding flowers…” that’s what I saw standing on the rocks in my father’s village in Croatia. I learned about politics early. Perhaps it’s one of the ways that I can be distinguished from many of my fellow Americans, since my parents weren’t born or raised here, so we in fact, did speak about politics…maybe too much.
So, when I speak of Ruby Gold or Rubies, what I’m speaking about is people…all people. And more than that, I’m speaking about consciousness, living breathing plants, soil, water, yeah, you name it, that’s what I’m talking about. The reason it’s “Gold” is because that is the real gold of life. You see, your blood is holy. And your breath, it’s holy. It’s not more or less sacred than mine or the plant’s. The plant serves a different role than we do, expresses a different aspect of consciousness, so that’s why my Rubies aren’t always people.
Preparing for Bushwick Open Studio, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of June had me desperate to edition these prints, which I’ve been thinking about but for some reason just couldn’t manifest. It was some days and days, just trashing my attempts. Then, suddenly, over a course of a week, they came to me! You can draw your own conclusions about what they may or may not be about and I sure would love to hear any comments. In the meantime, I’m posting them and letting you know that the cow on my downloads page is the same cow I used in these prints. I just took out all the detail. I’ll include a new download soon and announce it on my Twitter, so for those of you who are clicking and taking these pieces with you, keep going and don’t forget to let me know if something comes up that you want to share. I’m open. I can share more if I know what you’d like.
And if you want to talk politics and revolution we can do that, too. I have a feeling, it’s not what I thought about when I stood on those rocks and thought about “generations.” See, I was contemplating what my father gave to me, what we lost through assimilating into what I will call “ultra modern” culture and in a way, I looked to see what we might gain through the freedoms of Internet technologies. If you want to hear the entire poem that I started above, Version 2.0, you can hear it on Soundcloud. And if you’d like to support me, buy my book, Electric Bathtub Psalms, or come to the reading in June. I’d love to meet or see you. @mspapic on Twitter
