The Moon and the Poet 2003

Stefan Caltia painted 'The Moon and the Poet', and it feels like it emerged slowly, maybe over years, like a dream half-remembered. Look at the figure standing on a glass ball – or is it a bubble?– amidst a landscape of soft greens and blues. I wonder if Caltia, while making this painting, was thinking about the precariousness of life. The brushstrokes are smooth, almost seamless, giving the painting a soft, ethereal quality. It makes me think of other painters who mix the real with the unreal, like maybe Chagall. The red wing stands out, a pop of color that hints at a secret, or maybe the poet is just trying to fly. It reminds me that artists are always borrowing, stealing, and riffing off each other, turning ideas around and around until they find something new.