108. Color Plates finder } images from which.

“These are not interpretations or explanations of paintings—not even extrapolations or ekphrases. Instead, Color Plates is about the way a painting can provoke memory, can rustle its way into our head and incite synapses to connect in ways that are far from being obvious in the painting itself. Golaski superimposes the image in the painting with the event trapped in the head, laying the second on top of the first like ‘two texts on tissue paper’ or two lovers in a bed.” 

—Brian Evenson

The little stories (plates) in Color Plates are so removed from their first inspiration—the painting for which they are named—that a reader has all she needs in the text. That said, I appreciate that she might want more. Since the paintings are not reproduced in the book, the simplest way to get a sense of them is to search the Web. Some readers have done—have sat at a computer with book in hand and read and looked and read and looked.

Why it took so long for this idea to occur to me, I don't know, but the following is the contents of Color Plates, with links. I only include links to the websites of the museums that own the work. I assume a museum site promoting their permanent collection will be more accurate about details than other sources. In some cases, I couldn't find such a link (and in some cases, the work is in a private collection. For instance, Toulouse Lautrec's "The Laundress"). If you find a link I haven't, let me know and I'll add it.

1. Édouard Manet


“Boy with Cherries”

“Luncheon on the Grass”

“Olympia”

“Portrait of Emile Zola”

“The Railway”

“Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of an Espada”

“The Balcony”

“A Bar a the Folies-Bergère”

“On the Beach” *

“Claude Monet in His ‘Studio’”

“Blonde with Nude Bust”

“Luncheon in the Studio”

“The Fifer Boy”

“The Execution of Emperor Maximillian”

“Boating at Argenteuil”

“White Lilacs and Roses”

* Manet's “The Beach at Berck” is a favorite of Zetta's.

2. Edgar Degas

“Head of a Young Woman”

“Spartan Girls and Boys Exercising”

“The Dancing Class” (1876) *

“The Dancing Class” (1880)

“The Cotton Market, New Orleans”

“At the Race Course”

“Café Concert: The Song of the Dog”

“The Tub”

“The Bellelli Family”

“Dancers at the Bar”

“Breakfast after the Bath” **

“A Ballet Seen from an Opera Box”

“The Café Singer”

“The Mante Family”

* Degas painted many dance classes. Another, very similar to the painting in the Met, is at the Musée d'Orsay. I can't say with certainly which it was I originally studied for my story. 

** This, a sketch by Degas, may not the work I wrote from.

3. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“Young Routy”

“Portrait of the Artist’s Mother Reading”

“The Laundress”

“Cirque Fernando”

“A Corner in the Moulin de la Galette”

“M. Boileau at the Café”

“The Moulin de la Galette”

“A La Mie”

“La Goulue Entering the Moulin Rouge”

“At the Moulin Rouge”

“La Visite: Rue des Moulins”

“Woman Fixing Her Stocking” *

“The Grand Loge”

“The Toilette”

“Madame Berthe Bady”

“In a Private Room at ‘Le Rat Mort’”

“The Modiste”

* Also “Woman Pulling Up Her Stocking,” apparently at the Musee Toulouse-Lautrec, though I can't find the image on their site.

4. Mary Cassatt

“Head of a Young Girl”

“Reading Le Figaro”

“BabyReaching for an Apple”

“Little Girlin a Blue Armchair”

“Young Woman in Black”

“Study forAt the Opera/At the Opera” *

“Lady at theTea Table”

“Five O’Clock Tea”

“LydiaLeaning on Her Arms, Seated in a Loge”

“The Cup ofTea”

“Susan on aBalcony Holding a Dog”

“GirlArranging Her Hair”

“The Letter”

“The BoatingParty”

“ChildrenPlaying on the Beach”

* Or, “In the Loge”

Color Plates is on sale at the Rose Metal Press website for $12

107. Reading } Brookline Booksmith

A former student of mine told me she works with nerves insensate. She took my hands and said, “You know about the mineralized heart, don’t you?” I nodded. “You’d think,” she said, “it would be ruby or garnet. Maybe a red diamond?” She looked past me, straightened up, released my hands and said, “Professor. So good to see you. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.” I said, “No, really—” but she was gone before I could say anything to reassure her.

I didn’t chase after, but watched her go—hoped maybe she’d come back. She knew something about [X], whose organs were found partially crystallized after she was killed in a motorcycle accident, and maybe something about the Crystal Geyser? The more I thought about it—how could she? That was another campus, another state.

Perhaps a practical joke? Could she be one of the handful who reads Little Stories? If she is, I include her in this open invite: A week from today, that is Friday, June 13^th, at 7pm, I read with poets Matthew Klane and Alexandria Peary at Brookline Booksmith.

Not such a while ago, Matthew directed me to Delete Press, where his book from of the day was published as the first in their Delete-E series. from of the day is more lighthearted, I think, than his previous books Che and B. He writes, “Consult / yr skeleton’s / raucous hollows.” Though my sense of what’s lighthearted may be sickened from years of laughter. Alexandria Peary is not a poet I’m very familiar with, but I’m reading her book Control Alt Bird Delete and finding much to like. The first stanza of “Lilacs as Chart”:

The purple & white bars

rising and falling

are on mute

around the cellar hole

There’s a lot of this mixture, bar codes and nature.

Bash is hosted by Janaka Stucky. He hosted the reading for Elisa Gabbert’s The Self Unstable that I took my eldest to see / hear. When he read his poetry, my eldest asked, “what does ‘Thus I perish in amazement’ mean?” To which I replied, “I have no idea.” After perusing Janaka’s Wikipedia page, what amazes me most is we’re the same age yet I’ve accomplished so little.