(231) Chez Panisse 41st Anniversary:

Edition of 968 of which 125 copies are signed. 1-125, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs. There are no progressives.

October 8, 2012

17" x 24"
14 Colors
Paper: Starwhite Vicksburg Sirius 110# Cover

Model: Margarita Ilinishna Zaydman Gordon

Client: Chez Panisse Café & Restaurant

1-125: Saint Hieronymus Press
A-Z: Artist's own use

Dedication copies: Margarita Ilinishna Zaydman Gordo0n; Elena Shulemovich; Anna Zaidman; Svetlana Zaydman,; Eva Florence Zaydman; Caroline Jou Armitage;

Such a sweet apple
Reddens atop a bough,

Atop the highest, and
The apple pickers forgot,

No, not forgotten, surely,
But they could not reach.

Sappho of Lesbos (612? - 630? to 570? BC)
Fragment 105 (a). Translation, Richard Seibert.

"Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho" of Lesbos, whose fragments of verse echo and even after 2,600 years inspire. Muse of longing, poet of unrequited yearning. We desire that which we do not posses: if indeed, we possessed it, we would not desire it, as we would already have it. We want what we can't have; don't have; had once and lost; know about, need, but can't get. We yearn for the just out of reach, the almost-but-not-quite. Sappho gives voice to the very heart and soul of humanity: we want what we can't have, because we can't have it.

"Violet-haired . . ." (?fiπλοκ? ?γνα μελλιχfiμειδε Σ¿πφοι, fr. 384) Sappho's contemporary Alcaeus of Mytiline