ART POETRY AND MUSIC: KENSINGTON MARKET DREAM

18" by 24", Watercolor on Paper, 2000

from PROMETHEUS THE FIRE-EATER (A Tragical-Comedy In One Act)

PROMETHEUS:

The reward for my labor

Was heavenly ordained,

I knew from the outset

In the end I'd be chained

To a rock on the side of a solitary cliff;

Remorselessly bounded,

By judgment unfounded,

Like a boat gone whirling adrift.

CHORUS:

Prometheus tell us more about this thought about a thought,

and how you imparted the divine secret of fire to man.

PROMETHEUS:

Fire, cake, wine and pie

Who created man to die

Fixed upon his froward fate

All that he had drank and ate.

When I first saw that man was born

For nine full months I wept and mourn'd;

For-seeing his lack of light and truth,

I hid eight days in a make-shift booth;

On the ninth day I prayed

That the Lord would repent,

And bless man with knowledge

To relieve his distent.

But the Lord kept man barred

From all knowledge and light,

Until the blessed Redeemer

Would appear out of NIGHT.

CHORUS:

The story of man's fall to tell -

Is sadder than a lamb in hell.

About The Artist - DAVID SWARTZ

Love alone propels and inspires my will.

Love is Purpose is Meaning is Beauty is Truth.

What will not pass, will not die, has genuine lasting value?

Eternal Ideas or Memories or Love;

I consider everything in existence to be a reflection and an emanation of an Eternal Idea or Memory or Love.

Where this is lacking I stand amidst a world of non-existence, illusion, evil, falsity - where everything true and beautiful and meaningful is enveloped in a terrifying shroud of chaos and darkness. How does one stand in such a world? Upon what ground, when the ground itself is breaking the moment one begins to think about its non-existence? And yet one must stand! Alas, it is the AND in the HAND that allows one to stand in such a world!

STAND! Thane of the Stable,

Master of the horse,

Comes stabuli!

“AND THE HAND” welcomes you cordially,

Graciously and politely,

To the House of Stability!

My goal as an artist is to realize, see, and illuminate the world as an Eternal Idea empowered solely by Love and Memory.

In my recent paintings, the Eternal Idea or Memory or Love is represented as a Hand on a Wheel.

Out of the Wheels are Angles and Eyes, Colours, Rhythms and Patterns.

And the Wheels are Standing on Ladders.

And the Hand belongs to a bird or a fish whose wings and fins have become arms with hands holding wheels.

Balancing angles, colours, memories, musical spheres, hands of ands, a kettle of dreaming fish, moving without moving.

Eternal Love is the And in the Hand!

Father and Mother of Evolution

The force of Eternity

And source of all Creation.

Both in my art and life I am at war with chaos, ugliness, confusion, doubt, evil.

And yet I am the same one who is responsible for creating this same chaos, ugliness, confusion, and evil.

In the name SWARTZ one finds the words ART and WAR. SWARTZ comes from Shvartz (German/Yiddish) for Black.

I am Black AND I am Beautiful,

O ye daughters of Jeruselem;

Like the tents of Kedar,

Like the curtains of Solomon.

In an effort to make my paintings beautiful, meaningful, imbued with love and light and memory, I go to war with myself - with the chaos and ugliness and confusion and evil and darkness that envelope me where I stand in this world.

And as I look closely I begin to see that that there is something in it.

In an effort to re-discover beauty, light, love, meaning, the artist becomes a self-directed internal war upon darkness, evil, chaos, ugliness, purposeless suffering, meaninglessness, futility.

I am Black AND I am Beautiful.

The purpose of art is to inspire and illuminate, recover meaning, purpose, beauty - and above all, Love.

To connect Pain with Deliverance,

Salvation with Memory,

Let the Hand discover its own Land!

Hand the And the Hand!

Son Carries On Family's Artistic Tradition

By Rick Kardonne

Tribune Correspondent

TORONTO - David M. Swartz, son of the wellknown mid-20th century artist Marvin Swartz, and himself a worthy artistic successor to Picasso, Matisse and Chagall in terms of innovative cubism, bold use of colour, and Jewish imagery, will be prominently featured in the exhibit Maraud'Age to take place at Index-G gallery, 50 Gladstone Ave. (near Ossington Avenue and Queen St.West), Sept.16-23. Marvin Joseph Swartz was a prolific painter and lithographer. His brother Robert Swartz produced and directed a film entitled Provider, which was screened in Toronto (including on Bravo TV) and in Jewish film festivals in Toronto, Tel Aviv, Vancouver and Warsaw. David told the Jewish Tribune: "My father often drew hands and birds, and the bird theme was very prominent in his art." David's mother Rochelle Strauss was an English teacher at Seneca College and also an excellent artist in her own right. While some of David's many paintings also have the bird and the hand themes, in terms of creative imagination, he goes much further than that. His works display a remarkable degree of exciting, colourful, multi-image innovation in exploring such themes as Prometheus The Fire Eater; Fire, Cake, Wine and Pie; and HAND THE AND! All of these titles are the names of his many art shows in Toronto in the recent past. Jewish themes in his art are amply explored, such as his exhibit on Shadrach, Meshach and Aved-Nego and, in contrast to his vivid use of colour, the black and white reflective Portrait of a Chassidic Master in Jerusalem. David's studio was, for a long time, in the Parkdale area of west-end Toronto, but he has recently moved his studio to the Broadview- Dundas area. While he feels that the Toronto art scene is exciting and inspiring in terms of maximizing creative expression, he also believes that "Toronto is not a great place to sell one's art. I have not been able to use the many government art subsidies" that are the mainstay of many Toronto artists. The arts subsidy basis of Toronto art, he maintains, is in contrast to the more commercial art promotion atmosphere of New York. "There are no agents here who can truly represent and promote artists" as is the case in New York, David says. He hopes that Louise Pharand-Doren, who is currently representing him and placing him in the Index-G gallery, will signify a more business-oriented approach to art, which he would like to see develop in Toronto. While this exhibition, which will also include a work each of Andy Warhol and Philip Pearlstein as well as works by two other Canadian artists, will run between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for a short period of time, a visit to Index-G is highly recommended. David Swartz is a boldly original painter in the best modern art tradition while maintaining a strong sense of Jewish identity. This exhibition is not to be missed.