To live is to fly.

Painting by Michael Sowa

Won't say I love you babe

Won't say I need you babe

But I'm going to get you babe

and I will not do you wrong

Living's mostly wasting time

and I waste my share of mine

but it never feels too good

so let's not take too long

You're as soft as glass and I'm a gentle man

we got the sky to talk about

and the world to lie upon

Days up and down they come

like rain on a conga drum

forget most, remember some

but don't turn none away

Everything is not enough

nothing is too much to bear

where you been is good and gone

all you keep's the getting there

To live is to fly low and high

so shake the dust off of your wings

and the sleep out of your eyes

It's goodbye to all my friends

It's time to go again

Think of all the poetry

and the pickin' down the line

I'll miss the system here

the bottom's low and the treble's clear

but it don't pay to think too much

on the things you leave behind

I may be gone but I won't be long

I'll be bringing back the melody

and the rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill

and them holes are all that's real

some fall on you like a storm

sometimes you dig your own

But choice is yours to make

time is yours to take

some dive into the sea

some toil upon the stone

To live is to fly low and high

so shake the dust off of your wings

the sleep out of your eyes

Lyrics by The Cowboy Junkies

Life and art

"The function of the artist is to provide what life does not." Tom Robbins

"Art is finished once the artist has truly said everything that was in his heart." Christian Krohc

Painting by Michael Sowa. Click on image for larger version.

Michael Sowa

"Pompeii" by Michael Sowa

Michael Sowa is a contemporary German artist (born 1945) with a style that may remind you of the Gary Larson cartoon, "The Far Side". Such comparisons are frequently made, but Sowa's work seems to be sweeter somehow, more poignant and more detailed. It is all at once quiet and whimsical and expectant, like you just walked in on someone happy who thought he was acting in secret. When I look at his work, I just feel better. You may have seen Sowa's art on display in the French film, "Amelie", the perfect showcase. The pictures copied here all have German names that I won't begin to translate.