William Markiewicz s work is extraordinary. His images speak on many levels. His keen wit challenges the intellect; his use of color stimulates the emotions; and the dynamic shape of his images appeals to the spirit. Prof. Deborah Madsen (Professor University of Geneva, Director of the Department of English Language and Literature) (About Extracts of Existence )...This beautiful book by the painter /philosopher/ poet William Markiewicz, a work of art in itself. June Callwood (Canadian author and journalist) Markiewicz s collection is a thorough, thoughtful spiritual handbook. James Geary (author of The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism ) An avenue to considerable thought and wonder.... Phil Wagner (Editor, The Iconoclast ) ISBN 978-83-930890-0-0 WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM William Markiewicz
WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM WOODCUT-APHORISM William Markiewicz (2014)
Aspect s Library of Philosophical Prose Author: William Markiewicz Cover Art: Johann Ars y Copyright: William Markiewicz ISBN 978-83-930890-0-0 Editor: Ph. D. Zdzisław Wichłacz Translation Consultant: mgr Magdalena Wolewińska Publisher: Publishing house ASPECTSPRESS, Inowrocław, Poland e-mail: aspekty@ino.pl Printed by: TOTEM ul. Jacewska 89 88-100 Inowrocław, Poland
Edition (2014) First English edition: 100 + 2 copies
In the photo: the author of this minibook during a visit to the Nicolaus Copernicus University library in Toruń, Poland. A considerable part of his work is in the collection. (Photo: Nikolette Jakovac)
From the author: Sherlock Holmes discovered facts by following the thread to the spool-for me it is the contrary. Like Moliere s Monsieur Dupont who spoke prose without knowing it, I go subconsciously straight to the target. That is how my vocation as aphorist was born. Like a composer of songs, who simultaneously appreciates the value of melody and words, I like to simultaneously use picture and thought. As an aphorism represents concentration that leads immediately to the target, surrealism illustrates mystery. Sometimes it is a magic road leading to oracles. A combination of aphorism and surrealism is poetry. What is poetry? A matter of feeling. 5
Comments by critics/reviewers: The Minibook, Woodcut-Aphorism by William Markiewicz, thinker and artist, confirms that something well-said should be brief. That is my first thought, followed by gratitude, for such a rare and solemn style of expression and synthesis of thought that penetrates the depth of experience, a parallel of two aesthetics: word and picture. Aphorisms call us to a basic experience of the senses as they speak about mystery, about destiny, about pathways, courage of existence and enough space for emotion. The woodcuts sustain an atmosphere of natural religiosity underlined with simple form, accenting first shape and then color. The world seems to be eternal. The picture, focussed in its directness, has power to provide a message. As the author says: inspiration from nature offers the only chance to be yourself, not to be a copy. Doctor Jadwiga Sebesta (Literary critic, Theolog) It is enough to say that the author of this book "WOODCUT-APHORISM", William Markiewicz, is appreciated precisely in my editorial sphere as well as by many readers of Aspects in Europe for his multi- 6
aspect creativity. His painting, which enhances the human spirit, leads art lovers to countless territories of the human soul and existence because one penetrates the other. We appreciate William, not only for his art, but also his philosophical thought and literary creativity on the pages of our magazine. Please open this issue and be absorbed by the content of William s world and his philosophy, wisdom, and experience, the many levels of William s portrayals of daily human life through his words and pictures. We will see that just as in a movie, the pictures will become real and vivid, and the forms will be easily recognizable because for many of us, the humanistic reality is our reality. Zdzisław Wichłacz Ph.D. (Philosopher, Journalist and Chief Editor of Aspects) In the presentation of Woodcut-Aphorism, we encounter two artistic activities of William Markiewicz. The short dash in the apparently modest book title confirms the equal balance between expressions of plastic and verbal art. What we see and what we read inside the book: image and aphorism on facing pages, each neighbouring couple forming one emotion, interpretation of world, man and nature. 7
Golden thoughts of William Markiewicz, in their separate messages touch, among other subjects, the goal of life, passing time (aging), sense of creation, spirituality and human relation with God and his acts. The author doesn t reject the spirit of contradiction as in Reading Man : Enjoy the pleasures of old age as long as you are young. I would draw attention to the more developed structure of Dolls in Basket which provokes authentic chills of metaphysical existence: Dolls are a bridge between external and internal worlds, messengers of a secret universe, brothers and sisters of ghosts. The more ancient they are the more you expect them to rise and talk. Sometimes they seem to reign over your fate. Doctor Arkadiusz Frania (Essayist, Literary critic) 8
Your destiny is not always the one you seek, but always the one that finds you. (Small Boat at Costa Brava)
Spirituality: Magic side of vision. Empowers and escapes simultaneously. (Swans)
Metamorphosis: When the spirit remains. (Bombed Church in Dieppe, France)
The goal of the creator: join reality where reality joins mystery. (Sculpture and Plant)
Enjoy the pleasures of old age -- as long as you are young. (Reading Man)
Hell is when there is no reason to live and no courage to die. (The Bull a dream)
Accept your fate your lights, your shades Accept your life Accept your death the ears without sound the eyes with nothing to see The mouth without scream. The Eyes Fell as Dry Leaves and the Mouth Became a Small Waterfall Dream
In the final stage the painting plays the tune and your brush strokes are the dancing steps. (Dancers)
Don't play reality games, but play at what you want reality to be. Sometimes you win. (King and Fool)
If you have the key, the wall becomes a gate (City Lane)
Life is a race between your hand raising the champagne cup to your lips and the ocean's tide rising to swallow you. (Eve and Snake)
Dolls are a bridge between external and internal worlds, messengers of a secret universe, brothers and sisters of ghosts. The more ancient they are the more you expect them to rise and talk. Sometimes they seem to reign over your fate. (Dolls in Basket)
If nobody needs us, we don't need ourselves. (Lips)
Is the world `God's mask`? (Mask)
Life is a mirror, since consciousness means that exterior reality is reflected in us. For the dying person, life becomes a mirror of memories. For the prisoner in a cell or a hospital bed, life becomes an empty mirror. (Mirror)
The Great Silence Don't stir the great silence -- all you can do is to lift the mud from the bottom. For the animals and primitive man, the great silence serves as territory for their rituals. In the great silence, amble other territories, other dimensions -- ourselves. We interact with this exterior great silence, we create our thunders, our muds. But the great silence itself remains unaffected, immutable, like the moon on its watch. (Lady in the Moon)
Is it only through suffering that the human can feel equal to the universe? (Portrait of the Night)
Nature never repeats itself. The one who portrays nature is the only one who has a chance at originality (Parrots)
Death is the inevitable end of all; how can we prepare for it other than by lying? (Bouquet Life after Death)
When nothing exists, everything becomes unbearable ego. (Sitting Man)
No stories, only time yellowing the pages (Sitting Woman)
Communion with God: if you exist or not, I commune, because I exist. (Sphinx looking at the Stars a dream)
It's better to be an authentic loser than a false success, and to die alive than to live dead. (Struggle)
The problem is physical if you can change it and philosophical if you must change yourself. (Man and Tiger Tree a dream)
Listening to music I immerse myself in a flood of sound. Contemplating painting, I see the universe of a more beautiful planet. (Musician)
Intuition: going your way without inquiring about the way. (Walk in the Wood)
I don't know if I have legs or wings as I pass low over a wide range of ever-changing landscape. (Wings of Imagination)
I went with my day and it fell on the floor. The day was long and felt that the time had come for it to die. Somebody helped me put the day back on its feet; I think it was eternity because it advised the day not to measure existence with time. (Infinity)
Thus speaks the tree: I am a suspended meadow, a hand that earth extends to the sky. I am a bouquet the Earth offers to the sun. I am the living part of the landscape, witness to the place. I am the beginning and the end, a sense in myself. I am existence. If God exists, I am one. (Tree and Lizards a dream)
OUROBOROS My weakness is my strength, my yielding to inertia becomes my courage to do everything and I bathe in the light that reveals me to myself. And I kneel humbly before my body; my immediate comfort is my reward and my appearance is my verdict. Altogether, my two dimensional infinite picture becomes my three dimensional cocoon -- the cosmos to break through. Transcending the cosmos (Inspired by 16th century woodcut connected to the vision of Nicolas of Cusa)
No resurrection No metamorphoses Snakes for birds And stench for roses (Self-devouring Man)
(Fish) Justice is not a right but a privilege, a Holy Grail on the pathway of our struggles. Nobody defends justice, only *his* justice.
This night I stopped time and time stopped me. It nailed me so that each moment became my cross. (Crucified Time)
I am walking toward the crossroad and each fragment of my road is already crucified. (Crucified Road)
(Fakir) Don't try to accept the inevitable; you do that already by living. Learn how to accept the acceptance.