Crimson Lake

Francis Bacon's
Portrait of Pope Innocent X
from the Wikipedia website.

His name was Crimson Lake.
Parental joke, maybe...
more than enough to drive
a lad like him towards
a life of crime or drink.

It pushed him into art,
he found a refuge there
and soon declared himself:
Bacon was his hero,
he planned to be like him.
("A name must have a name
or no one gives a damn!")
Michael, he'd been meaning
(rock guitarist, 3D
animator, Sony
games designer, builder
of environments):
but found himself nonplussed
when critics asked "Which one?"
Recovering at speed:
"The both of them," said he.

He had to look up stuff
on Francis. After which,
"Their influence," he said,
"was of their words, not works."
Francis gave the thought that
"van Gogh's fields give off
the violence of grass"
from which a small step took
him to: "magnetic fields
will sizzle, done in paint!"
"Man is an accident,
life is accidental,
my work shall be the same!
I'll paint the plight of man
stuck in this godless world
of widgets and white coats."

And he was proved correct:
a kind of half-connect
was made between his work
and his two guru guides.
Apparent, visual
not of the essence and
not real. An accident.
That was it. Nothing that
was consciously achieved.
........................

For Michael Bacon's work click here