Moon |

Although the examples below show more explicit representations of the celestial body itself, the moon is somewhat omnipresent throughout much of MacIver’s work. Its subtle glow and beam are captured in her luminous representations of city lights, cracks in the pavement, Parisian trees, and all sorts of luminous everyday objects. The essence of the moon as a subtle yet all powerful force is captured in these paintings, and many of the sketches below reveal the careful thought she put in to crafting the subtle colors of a moonbeam.

"Once Cummings allowed us into the small second-floor room where he did his writing. It was quite bare except for straight-backed chars and a table piled with manuscript. At one side, as in so many of his rooms, was a miniature fireplace. In the slightly dark room a luminous rectable glowed like moonlight in the hearth of the fireplace. We exclaimed at its beauty.

'Yes," said Cummings, "And at night it lets down a parcel of moonlight" — A Parcel of Moonlight
"Once Cummings allowed us into the small second-floor room where he did his writing. It was quite bare except for straight-backed chars and a table piled with manuscript. At one side, as in so many of his rooms, was a miniature fireplace. In the slightly dark room a luminous rectable glowed like moonlight in the hearth of the fireplace. We exclaimed at its beauty. 'Yes," said Cummings, "And at night it lets down a parcel of moonlight"

Skylight Moon, 1958, oil on canvas, 127 x 101 cm, Smithsonian American Art Museum
The skylight of MacIver's 61 Perry Street apartment served as inspiration for countless paintings. This one focuses on capturing a luminous moon beam, much like the "parcel of moonlight" she wrote about after visiting Cummings' writing room.

Moonlight, oil on canvas, 32 x 36", Private collection
This painting is stylistically aligned with MacIver's work of the late 1940s, and, when viewed alongside her other work, demonstrates the artists versatility and changing style throughout her career. This painting, like "Skylight Moon," captures a moon-beam traveling into a room. The mystical dream-scape represented by the bed harkens back to MacIver's interest in the themes of dreaming and sleeping.

Telescope sketch
In this simple sketch of a telescope, likely intended for a painting, MacIver's focus on depicting moonbeams is again illuminated in the "shafts of moonlight" which she writes beneath the telescope.

Mrs. Moonlight
Above this sketch for a painting of a front door illuminated by moonlight is the quote: "Mrs. Moonlight scrubbing the steps of no. 9," a reference to Joyce's "Ulysses."

Gutter sketch
A sketch of a moonlit bottle in a gutter, with the Oscar Wilde quote "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the stars" beneath.

Moon's Wine--Bordeaux
A note from 1964, during MacIver's time abroad in France.

"The shadows at this time are so clear and pale azure, they look like moonlight in broad daylight"
A note from April 24, 1968 (also during MacIver's time in France)

anyone lived in a pretty how town

E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

Women and men(both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then)they

said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

noone and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain

The above poem, perhaps Cummings’ best known, is quoted in several places throughout MacIver’s sketches. I found this an especially well suited poem for this theme not only because of MacIver’s wonderful handwritten note about seeing the “parcel of moonlight” in Cummings’ writing room. In the poem, the refrain “sun moon stars rain” positions the moon as a sign of the broader, dependable passing of time guided by natural forces, upon which the measure of human existence is made. This is an especially literary way of interpreting the moon, and one that is alienated from its physical appearance. Looking at this poem beside “Skylight Moon” or “Moonlight,” you can see the ways in which artists who were friends and bound within the same general moment in time can both depict the same theme in a ways so different that each could not be fully articulated by the other’s medium. While Cummings’ poem shows the moon in a way that perhaps could only be shown in words, MacIver represents the moon in ways which cannot be expressed with words alone.