“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”.
WOODCUT-APHORISM
WOODCUT-APHORISM
WOODCUT-APHORISM
WOODCUT-APHORISM
WOODCUT-APHORISM
June Callwood
(Canadian author and journalist)
WOODCUT-APHORISM
“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
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: [email protected]
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 multi6
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)
Justice is not a right but a privilege, a Holy
Grail on the pathway of our struggles.
Nobody defends justice, only *his* justice.
(Fish)
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)
Don't try to accept the inevitable;
you do that already by living.
Learn how to accept the acceptance.
(Fakir)