A Cleat

There’s a storm coming.
It’s far away but you still have time to prepare. There’s a door to shelter to get you through the downpour if it comes upon you suddenly —you recognize it by the light it emanates— and gratitude is given for a shelter in such times, regardless of its form. In the light that renders the city’s colors brilliant before a downpour, a pair of beacons stands out under a top-heavy sky.

I worked on these paintings together and finished them in 2019, months before the pandemic began. The site is my neighborhood, a place that features in numerous photographs I take for reference for my paintings. I’ve photographed this area for decades; it’s been a stage with a slowly shifting set, and countless one-act plays. On the left is an image from ground level near my alley, and on the right is a view, quite distant, from my studio.

cleat (klet) n. 1. A strip of wood or iron used to strengthen or support the surface to which it is attached. 2. A piece of iron, rubber, or leather attached to the underside of a shoe to preserve the sole or prevent slipping. 3. A piece of metal or wood having projecting arms or ends on which a rope can be wound or secured. 4. A wedge-shaped piece of wood or other material fastened onto something, such as a spar, to act as a support or to prevent slipping. 5. A spurlike device used in gripping a tree or pole in climbing. —tr.v. cleated, cleating, cleats. 1. To supply, support, or strengthen with a cleat or cleats. 2. Nautical. To secure (rope or other material) to or with a cleat. (Middle English clete, Old English cleat (unattested), lump, wedge. See gel-1 in Appendix.*)

Morris, William, ed. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980

A Cleat (diptych), 2 panels 12” x 12”, 2009-2019, painted in oil on glue-chalk gesso on glue size on cradled hardboard panels.