For Mickey Roberts
A letter of gratitude.
The painting arrived this week. I made a stand for it. It has been sitting on my desk while I study and I keep stopping to look at it. You made me cry, I appreciate this, I needed to.
I am grateful you included all of my dear friends and enemies on my shelves, but I am even more grateful you allowed me to see firsthand the beauty of your craft. I can see the choices being made by you as this once living Oak had life breathed into it again by you, I can trace my thumb over you painting my dear friend Michel’s name on a spine. I am glad you included him, I often picture he and myself in rabid debate over Ecce Homo, and would trade places with Chomsky to share the stage with him and talk linguistics on that fateful day in the Netherlands (fun fact: the host was on acid, and did a great job considering).
You got the wall color spot on. That could not have been easy to do. Thank you for choosing Oak, I will take care of it for the duration of my life.
I keep trying to read the text you painted on the book spines. I have spent twenty minutes on this daily.
The note is going on my wall. You know, I had a great conversation with Grant David Crawford, PhD a while back and I stated openly, “One of the reasons I love Mickey’s work so much is because Mickey is Mickey and you’re going to get exactly Mickey when Mickey is around!” I find this to be intriguing because it was my initial appraisal of you and I am happy to be correct. I can see you in this portrait, and I can see you in all of your works. I do not know why they speak to me so, but, I can say that they speak to me still, and like many of the beautiful things of life, sometimes it’s better to let beauty become fact.
I am making you something too and writing you a proper letter by hand, and in return for this gift I consider eternal - I too will give you something that will last a lifetime. They will be in the mail before the end of the month. Thank you, I will never forget this.
-Barnes
Mickey's Art - Probably one of the best looking gallaries and sites i’ve ever seen.
This is beautiful. I love that this platform has created space for moments like this.
Mickey is one of those guys you want more of