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1936-written for "Art for the Millions", both planned by Holger Cahill for publication by the WPA Federal Art Project cc to Ruth Bowman MY MURLS FOR THE NEWARK AIRPORT: AN INTERPRETATION BY ARSHILE GORKY The walls of the house were made of clay blocks, deprived of all detail, with a roof of rude timber. It was here in my childhood that I witnessed, for the first time, that most poetic image of operations - the elevation of the object. This was a structural substitute for a calendar. In this culture, the seasons manifested themselves, therefore there was no need, with the exception of the Lental period, for a formal calendar. The people, with the imagery of their extravagantly tender, almost innocently direct concept of Space and Time conceived of the following: In the ceiling was a round aperture to permit the emission of smoke. Over it was placed a wooden cross from which was suspended by a string an onion into which seven feathers had been plunged. As each Sunday elapsed, a feather was removed, thus denoting the passage of Time. As I have mentioned above, through these elevated objects, floating feather and onion, was revealed to me, for the first time, the marvel of making from the common the uncommon! This accidental disorder became the modern miracle. Through the denial of reality, by the removal of the object from its habitual surrounding, a new reality was pronounced. The same sense of poetic operations manifested itself in the handiwork of the ancient Egyptian undertaker. Knowing that the living could not live forever, with the spiritual support of the priest, he operated upon the dead, so that the dead might live forever - never to die! To ensure the perpetuation of life, portraits of the beings, glassy-eyed, enigmatic, were painted upon the mummies.