Bart Wilcox
Still Life
2024, Acrylic on canvas, 20″ x 16″, framed

Still life that never was life. The French
have a better term for it (that statement
will always be true): nature morte. Dead
nature, the clever French, nothing is easy.
Ceci n’est pas une pipe. Ce n’est pas la vie.
It depends on the meaning of “this.” You mean
this? Or this here pipe?
I mean this here life is concocted of paint
and painted from no subject other than
an intention to paint. I can’t call it life.
But I can’t call it dead.