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Writer's pictureWEDossett

Distal


Reflection - by Jonathan Retallick


I first saw this extraordinary painting propped awkwardly against a wall, with its edges wrapped in packaging. It had just been delivered to Ffin-y-Parc Gallery in Llandudno. I didn't know what it was called, nor what it meant to its creator. It was just sitting there in a dark corner, glowing at me - from space, from the dramatic and distant past, from beyond my furthest reach, yet speaking to me of the intimacy of bones.



Distal

 

bones of corset, or of fan

bones of wrist and bones of hand

jointed shards of protein and of calcium

fragile phalanges, hamate and trapezium.

 

hollow bones of bird wing

articulated scapular and propelling pinion joint

keratinous feather with shaft and vane

to move the air and favour flight.

 

proximal green turns distal blue

from jugular vein to outer space

stand on the altar and raise arms aloft

summon Quetzalcoatlus from the distant past.


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