Mr. Mike’s essay is personal and intimate. It bespeaks an intimate understanding of Mr. Le Va’s work as well as Mr. Le Va himself. Reading the essay, one gets the impression that Mr. Mike considers both Mr. Le Va and his works old friends with whom he has spent many hours conversing and exchanging ideas. Mr. Mike obviously hears the music that silently plays in Mr. Le Va’s works and has the unique ability to make his readers hear that music through his essay. His essay could easily function as an essential companion to Mr. Le Va’s work that would enrich the experience of viewing it for casual viewers as well as experts.

While revealing an intimate knowledge of Mr. Le Va and his works, Mr. Mike’s essay also offers a distinctive insight into the creative process. He seamlessly relates how Mr. Le Va’s works interweave elements of physics, geometry, poetry, and music; in the process of relating these diverse considerations to Mr. Le Va’s works, one can tell that Mr. Mike has grappled with each of them in composing his own works. His essay calls upon everyone—from casual observers to working artists—to look beyond the surface of an artwork and consider the diverse, sometimes contradictory elements that inspired and directed the artist in creating the work.

In the end, Mr. Mike’s essay is an important comment not only upon Mr. Le Va’s art but also upon understanding artists and the art they create. Like the art he describes, Mr. Mike’s essay has multiple layers requiring careful study and consideration from a broad range of perspectives. No matter how many times one reads Mr. Mike’s essay, it always offers something new to ponder.

White

Field clear
waiting for winter words
deep dug trenches
surrounding our world inside
cicles of ice teeth
guarding the yard way

This idea of an idea
these words just letters
punched on my screen
from mind to machine
in bone black
on a face of Times

This drawing in line
no pen or brush
ink or gouache
could it be carbon
or is it just peat
on my recycled sheet

white from up there
on a grid to show where
covering my text
at any given time
this element of chance
an artistic inspiration.