Escape Into Life: Issue No. 30

At The Dressing Table, 1909, by Zinaida Serebriakova

Art Videos: Sean Scully — The Inner Meaning of Abstraction . . . In this video, entitled “Structure without Coercion,” Scully’s evocative language and direct gaze create for the viewer an entry into the thought processes and unifying theories of his work. His specific and painterly language illuminates some goals of  the 2006-2007 “Wall of Light” exhibition and sheds light on a career that spans over 30 years.

The Poetry of Nic Sebastian . . . Sometimes delicious, sometimes dangerous, but always compelling. Sebastian’s verse roams the heated territories and psyches of a shimmering world immersing the reader color, scent, joy, and sorrow. After imbibing her poetry treat yourself to the varieties of poetic experience by visiting her blog, Very Like A Whale.

Zenaida Serebriakova and the Soviet Nude . . . In this tightly-woven and insightful essay, EIL contributor, Stephen Pain, examines the vibrant work of a complex artist who began her work during the “Silver” period of experimental and avante garde expression at the end of Tsarist Russia. Serebriakova continued to work throughout the dangerous political upheavals that followed. Pain’s essay employs revealing comparisons to underscore the (ever-changing and never-changing) ways that society politicizes, eroticizes, and criticizes the female nude in works of art. In many ways, however, Serebriakova’s light-filled paintings insist on speaking for themselves.

Music Preview: Lasers by Lupe Fiasco . . . This album is long-awaited, promoted by a dramatic and somewhat overwrought website, and has been the subject of a variety of rumors since it was first mentioned last year. His first two albums, the ebullient Food & Liquor and the hip-hop concept album Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool established high expectations and Fiasco upped the stakes with the promotional material for Lasers. Will he make good with an historic album?

Movie Review: The Extreme World of Eraserhead . . . EIL reviewer, Mark Kerstetter, takes a passionate re-view of David Lynch’s 1977 film Eraserhead. With its intentional artificiality, its deliberate gross-out images, and its distinct parallels to Surrealism, the film continues to establish a literal and figurative reflection of the life and death dramas of the last century and those still current.

Stacy Ericson is an editor and photographer who has been writing poetry since she was a child. Her work often reflects her interest in other cultures, ancient languages and religion, and visceral passions. She says, “To me poetry is a very serious undertaking involving studying poets that have gone before, the changing styles and goals of different time periods, specific imagery, unexpected juxtapositions, and a consciousness of meter and trope. I don’t like to spell things out, but to leave room for the reader’s imagination to participate in the verse. I also make a real effort to structure line breaks so different meanings are revealed depending on the way the lines are read and joined by the reader.”