Some Go Hunting For Light   6 comments

Lighthouse 2 blogEdward Hopper’s Lighthouse Village, Cape Elizabeth (1929)

Lighthouse 4 Hopper photo blog

Maine house, 1998, by Michael H. Coles

There is so much I love about the art of Edward Hopper, which is why I continue to turn to his work — so on the pulse of us as Americans. I have never been to Maine, let through painting like Lighthouse Village, I feel as if I grow up in Cape Elizabeth — his inspiration allows my imagination to capture reality.

“I once told Hopper that he shows us who we are,” said poet William Carlos Williams. “He’d have no part of my enthusiasm, or extravagance. ‘Yes, I try,’ he said–and then he spoke about ‘light,” how hard he looks for it. He told me to go ‘hunting’ for light, and I liked hearing him use that word–seeing his face get lit up as he spoke!” (“Seeking Maine’s Light,” DoubleTake, Winter 2000)

The Michael H. Coles photograph of a Maine house taken not far from where Hopper painted Lighthouse Village illustrates how Hopper was able to capture the light.

kenne

Edward Hopper, Self-portrait

Edward Hopper, Self-portrait

Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad (1925)

by Edward Hirsch

Out here in the exact middle of the day,
This strange, gawky house has the expression
Of someone being stared at, someone holding
His breath underwater, hushed and expectant;

This house is ashamed of itself, ashamed
Of its fantastic mansard rooftop
And its pseudo-Gothic porch, ashamed
of its shoulders and large, awkward hands.

The_House_by_the_Railroad_by_Edward_Hopper_1925

The House by the Railroad by Edward Hopper 1925

But the man behind the easel is relentless.
He is as brutal as sunlight, and believes
The house must have done something horrible
To the people who once lived here

Because now it is so desperately empty,
It must have done something to the sky
Because the sky, too, is utterly vacant
And devoid of meaning. There are no

Trees or shrubs anywhere–the house
Must have done something against the earth.
All that is present is a single pair of tracks
Straightening into the distance. No trains pass.

Now the stranger returns to this place daily
Until the house begins to suspect
That the man, too, is desolate, desolate
And even ashamed. Soon the house starts

To stare frankly at the man. And somehow
The empty white canvas slowly takes on
The expression of someone who is unnerved,
Someone holding his breath underwater.

And then one day the man simply disappears.
He is a last afternoon shadow moving
Across the tracks, making its way
Through the vast, darkening fields.

This man will paint other abandoned mansions,
And faded cafeteria windows, and poorly lettered
Storefronts on the edges of small towns.
Always they will have this same expression,

The utterly naked look of someone
Being stared at, someone American and gawky.
Someone who is about to be left alone
Again, and can no longer stand it.

6 responses to “Some Go Hunting For Light

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

  1. Hopper is also one of my favorite American artists. Occasionally, I come across scenes that remind me of Hopper’s paintings and drawings. This is the photo I took of the Yaquina Head Light House in Newport, Oregon and it reminds me of one of Hopper’s work.

  2. Hopper is one of my favorites too. He seems to gives us reality as it and as we wish it were, simple, clean, solid.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Becoming is Superior to Being

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading