Frances Middendorf

Posted 5/16/2010 8:47pm by Eugene Wyatt.

The Motive Force in Every Plot

Frances Middendorf shows drawings from Cesare Pavese poems now at the National Arts Club through May 24th.

Below in Pensieri di Deola (Deola Thinking), the poet's description is of the present, but he concerns us with the future, not only Deola's, but our own. There is a moment of calm for her in the morning, her morning, and for us too in our morning as we wait with her when we're not looking for anyone.

America is too young yet to feel the melancholy that Europe knows; but when you travel there, when you walk the streets, when you visit a cafe, you feel the forgotten times of what happened in that place you happen to be and this unknown—never to be known, only to be imagined—is best described as melancholy. It is sweet and it is human and it is rich and it is full like black tobacco smoke wafting from a worker's cigarette as he smiles and spills a little red wine on the zinc bar next to you.

The drawings capture this sense of the past gone, of a future where a past will go away and desert us forever. Sad, well not really. But let us stay in the present with the gray graphite on white Arches, two values shaded into one another. Drawing is immediate. Drawings have a truth that paintings hide behind their color; drawing not only grasps the moment of decision, it is that moment.

Even though what we experience may be colorful, beautiful green trees for example, that which is beautiful of those green trees is colorless. Color as lovely as it is, is an afterthought to the process of being and of knowing beauty, even though what we are, or what we know, is considered beautiful. Color is what language talks about, it is not language, it is too complex. Drawing, like language, tells you what it is by telling you what it isn't. The drawing mark on paper is here not there, dark not light, scumbled not distinct, versos of these marks would say something different,

Frances Middendorf's drawings speak to us; they tell us about our world, they hint at its secrets (which is what we want, we don't want to be handed the answers), they are leading to our imagination and this is what we want of art and of life, permission.

The poems are lovely and the drawings are lovely. EW

Deola Thinking

Deola passes her mornings sitting in a cafe,

and nobody looks at her. Everyone’s rushing to work,

under a sun still fresh with the dawn. Even Deola

isn’t looking for anyone: she smokes serenely, breathing

the morning. In years past, she slept at this hour

to recover her strength: the throw on her bed

was black with the boot-prints of soldiers and workers,

the backbreaking clients. But now, on her own,

it’s different: the work’s more refined, and it’s easier.

Like the gentleman yesterday, who woke her up early,

kissed her, and took her (I’d stay awhile, dear,

in Turin with you, if I could) to the station

to tell him goodbye.

She’s dazed this morning, but fresh—

Deola likes being free, likes drinking her milk

and eating brioches. This morning she’s nearly a lady,

and if she looks at anyone now, it’s just to pass the time.

The girls at the house are still sleeping. The air stinks,

the madam goes out for a walk, it’s crazy to stay there.

To work the bars in the evening you have to look good;

at that house, by thirty, you’ve lost what little looks you had left.

Deola sits with her profile turned toward a mirror

and looks at herself in the cool of the glass: her face pale,

and not from the smoke; her brow a bit furrowed.

To survive at that house, you’d need a will

like Marí used to have (because, honey, these men

come here to get something they can’t get at home

from their wives or their lovers) and Marí used to work

tirelessly, full of good cheer and blessed with good health.

The people who pass the cafe aren’t distracting Deola—

she only works evenings, making slow conquests

to music, in her usual bar. She’ll make eyes.

at a client, or nudge his foot, while enjoying the band

that makes her seem like an actress doing a love scene

with a young millionaire. One client each evening

is enough to scrape by on. (Maybe that gentleman from last night

really will take me with him.) To be alone, if she wants,

in the morning. To sit in a café. To not look for anyone.

Cesare Pavese, translated by Geoffrey Brock

Tags: Cesare Pavese, Frances Middendorf

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