My Garden

I come here to this place of beauty as often as I can.
By label, I would be "gardener".
Yet, I confess, she sculpts me more than I, her.

My soul is enriched by the scent of her landscape.
Enrapturing every moment spent within her blossoming borders.

With sharp tools, I work her surface.
Cold and metallic. Undeserving of her intimate features.

In truth, she knows best.
If I could give her to that wild nature she longs to express.
How fair she would be. Moreso than even I could shape her.

For what I do is destroy her longing to be set free.
I am called the master of her boarders.
Yet, I'd rather she be left to follow her own voracities.

For only I see what grows wild within her secret places.
Creativity, discernment, wisdom, and a quick wit,
being some of her most desirable annuals.

Yet, I am toilsome to remove these expressions.
Hardly because I desire to.

I fear that if others see her true nature.
I shall be labeled wanting in my duties towards her.

This by others who spend far less time among her petals.
Caring little for what she wishes herself to become.

So I pay my debt to social constructs.
I remove her wilds and plant unnatural efflorescence.
Deemed appropriate for a garden of such distinction.

Society wants of her conformity,
while creativity is to be managed rather than encouraged.

Dullness is worked along every path,
with discernment no longer in sight.

Even still, naivete and ignorance please the masses,
far more than her native wisdom and organic wit. 

So for the sake of my own appearance.
I try to mould her into something she does not wish to be.
She gives of her nature freely,
but I prune it back at risk of her spirit overwhelming me.

All I yearn for is to let wild her truth.
To foster that which she longs to express.
Perhaps one day I will be less of a coward,
and nurture that which my garden gives of her own fashioning.

I take solace in knowing that despite my assaults and intrusions.
Her natural beauty always finds it's way back to the surface.

I destroy, and yet she rebuilds.
I pluck, and yet she yields.
I reshape, and yet she demands freeform.

Long after I am gone. She'll be here still.
Perhaps one day someone new will come along,
one to encourage that wild spirit she encompasses.

The reality is that I can never truly change her.
Yet she has forever changed me.

I give little and take in abundance.
Yet, she always has ever so much more to offer.

I come here to this place of beauty as often as I can.
A garden that will not be tamed by any man,
and that,
that is why I love her.

Nautical Triptych

"Nautical Triptych"

by

Mann Wynn

Oil on Canvas

12" x 36"
(12" x 12" per canvas)

2014

Mann Wynn is the "nom de artiste" for
Matthieu Duquette's painting.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

runic alphabet representing the letters "M" and "W".

Leviathan

"Leviathan"

by

Mann Wynn

Oil on Canvas

24" x 48"

2014

Mann Wynn is the "nom de artiste" for
Matthieu Duquette's painting.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

runic alphabet representing the letters "M" and "W".

Words of Wisdom

If the golden rule is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The platinum rule should be "Don't expect the same courtesy of the golden rule in return."

Expectations are usually going to be left wanting. Remember that and the golden rule becomes much easier to follow.  

The Fisherman

"The Fisherman"

by

Mann Wynn

Oil on Canvas

24" x 30"

2014

Mann Wynn is the "nom de artiste" for
Matthieu Duquette's painting.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

runic alphabet representing the letters "M" and "W".

Words of Wisdom

One of the most beneficial lessons you can learn about life is that there must always be room in your heart to embrace tragedy. There will undoubtedly be sorrowful experiences we must all go through at every turn of the page. What makes the difference, is that which you take from them. Fight it, or allow misfortune to consume you, and it is by your own will that they become utterly hideous.

Take from these experiences every last drop of wisdom you can. Be at peace with yourself and others in tragedy. Work diligently through the hurt, rather than ignore or run from it.

You cannot erase lamentations, nor the effect they have on your life. What you can control is whether you transform tragedy into something beautiful. Or something altogether destructive.

Let not another moment of your life be given over to pernicious calamity. There's simply not enough time for it.

Flutterby

"Flutterby" by Mann Wynn 2014

"Flutterby"

by

Mann Wynn

Oil on Canvas

30" x 40"

2014

Mann Wynn is the "nom de artiste" for 
Matthieu Duquette's painting.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

runic alphabet representing the Letters "M" and "W".

Set Sail

It's been quite some time since I've painted. I have two pieces I've been working on, however. This is the second of the two I started recently. Yet the first to see completion.

"Set Sail" by Mann Wynn 2014

"Set Sail"

by

Mann Wynn

Oil on Canvas

36" x 48"

2014

Mann Wynn is the "nom de artiste" for 
Matthieu Duquette's painting.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

runic alphabet representing the Letters "M" and "W".

Words of Wisdom

Have pity on those who demand respect based on status or position. For they are the small portion of society who will never earn respect based on their merits.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

The cover page of my two part photostory submitted to Chaosphere Magazine. This page was dropped before final production. Completely destroying the message I had intended to convey.

Another reminder why I don't often work with magazines.

I wrote a tanka poem that went along with the photo-narrative which is featured below.

Dark ritualist.

Seeker of ageless excess.

Take heed. Life breeds death.

Sparing none the final rest.

Desire too much and lose all.