church ave brooklyn, 2h15pm.

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"

-Emily Dickinson. 

master

“Have you the Heart in your breast — Sir — is it set like mine — a little to the left —”

-emily dickinson, 1861 letter from the "master" series.

faces come out of the rain

pink dressed

earlier this week I ventured to the wilds of uptown to visit the vermeers at the met for my birthday. unfortunately the vermeer gallery was closed (tragic circumstance), but I was still glad to make a stop by the sargents in the american wing. sargent's portraits are incredible for me because of the life he somehow manages to paint under his subject's skin. there's a dimension to their flesh which is hard to explain. my new favourite painting is the incredible mrs hugh hammersley:

sargent's brush strokes are clearly influenced by the impressionist movement here, their shape becomes more irregular & free formed. I just love the vivacity in this woman's face. the motion in her pose. the whole painting is just full of life. the space surrounding her eyes is stunning, the shades of peach, pink, & red in her skin makes you feel her blood flowing. she's radiant. 

she's also sargent's sister. which I think explains her lively air & tenacious pose. 

it also helps that her pink dress is fabulous. 

near to the wild heart

In putting together my final MFA packet of this semester I was tasked with writing an annotation of Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart. The novel is influenced by James Joyce & is written almost entirely in an introspective dialogue. There is very little, if any, physical action. Reading the book felt like being lost in a blue waterworld, with no direction & no footholds to grasp at. Needless to say, I wasn't sure how to write about it.

So I put together this audio/visual piece called lispector blue as a kind of response/exploration of the process of reading the book.

lispector blue from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

I felt like painting.

in an act of exceptional procrastination yesterday I decided I would make some use out of one of the canvases I've had in my closet for a million years. my obsession with the virgin mary served as my inspiration...

pink madonna of the rocks, mixed media, 11x14.

this picture is both brighter & darker than my original... not sure how that happened.

UPDATE:
mini video of said painting after the jump.