Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window – Vermeer

 

Light exists as a continuous everlasting beginning. Darkness, by contrast, is not, as often assumed, a finality but a prelude. – John Berger, Cataract

 

Vocal – Lilli Cooper

Acoustic guitar – Ted Stafford

Piano – Greg Pliska

Bass – George Rush

Drums – Mark Brotter

Flute, clarinet – Peter Hess

Flugelhorn – Jim Hynes

Violins – Cenovia Cummins, Rachel Handman

Viola – Hiroko Taguchi

Cello – Kate Spingarn

Strings arranged by Greg Pliska

 

I know the red of sunset

When the sea has caught on fire,

When the bellies of the clouds are raw

And the bird’s caught on the wire.

 

I know the green of dark canals,

The black of waiting saints,

But where’s the magic color,

Inside our box of paints?

 

Where is light, light divine?

How do I paint the light that makes a spirit shine?

Where is the brush, the oil of day?

Where is the hue so bright you’ve got to look away?

Where is light, light divine?

 

Who paints the brown on hollow cheeks

When hunger runs too deep,

When the bellies of the children burn

Bright yellow in their sleep?

Who paints the gray on human flesh

In silent tenements?

And who will come illuminate

Our dark Enlightenment?

 

Where is light, light divine?

How do I paint the light that makes a spirit shine?

Where is the brush, the oil of day?

Where is the hue so bright you’ve got to look away?

Where is light, light divine?

 

Who flipped the switch?

Who made the light?

Was the day the chick

Or was the egg the night?

 

Where is light, light divine?

How do I paint the light that makes a spirit shine?

Where is the brush, the oil of day?

Where is the hue so bright you’ve got to look away?

Where is light, light divine?

Light and Color (The Morning after the Deluge) – Turner