Wallace Stevens and Galactic Stories

"At The Edge Of The Universe"

My dear friend, Alita Pirkopf, wrote me this email after seeing my show, "Galactic Stories", and I wanted, with her permission, to share it with you.

Subject: Everything and Nothing

Sandra, What a pleasure.

I went to see your work three other times with three different friends. All of us were delighted and involved! I learned all sorts of things from hearing them express what they saw and thought! The talk you and the marvelous curator, Simon Zalkind, was deeply interesting! Such an honor for you to be asked to exhibit in such a meaningful setting. I am rereading your invitation which is absolutely beautiful and thought provoking.

I had been reading the last part of a biography about the later years of the poet Wallace Stevens. Online I read some critic's comment on Steven's Collected Poems which said, "In this work Stevens explored inside a profound philosophical framework the dualism between concrete reality and the human imagination. I am working on what the framework part means but I think that, similarly, you deal with the concrete reality of science and also with the human imagination.

"At the Edge of the Universe," reminds me of Stevens' words in The Snow Man, which, with your help, I just now think I understand. Though you seem more positive than Stevens when he wrote that poem, you too deal with whatever might or might not be.

Maybe you know the poem. The lines I am thinking of are:

And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is

I don't think the "And, nothing himself," bit applies to you with your magic, and apparently, later, things didn't seem so grim to Stevens.

Thank you so much!!!

Alita