Remembering a Wonderful Friend and Painter, Edward Castiglione

Much too young and much too sadly, Edward died last spring. He had been my friend for many, many years. He repeatedly gave me the gift of his teaching about painting. In amazing conversations, typically over wonderful food that he had prepared, with great seriousness but also much smiling and laughing, Eddie talked about painting. He covered it all: Painting’s history, possibilities, challenges, joy, struggle, hope, heights, and absolute necessity. Here is poem written about and for him by Stephen, a friend who knew Edward and his work from the very beginning:

Notes for an Elegy (for Edward, 1948-2010)

God give the yellow man
an easy breeze at blossom time.

- Arna Bontemps

The lemons on the blue and white porcelain plate
three
placed according to
the rules he knew always
what order
the world
had for
fiction.

But the world never conceded,
never signed the treaty
of his painting.

All its wars killed him,
a distraught believer
sitting in Marat's bloody bath water,
like Gericault sketching in the morgue.

He saw more than was good for him
and remembered everything

this was not a blessing

and the glories that he fashioned
from the horrors
were no consolation
in the end.

Then what do we
incompetents
do for hope?

We gave him over to his own untender mercies.

In the only dream I have had of him since he died
the room was full of books,
like his house

and not,
as dreams always slightly revise the familiar,

and a brightness

his last perfect lie.

Stephen Vincent Kobasa
May - December, 2010

And here are some images of Edward’s painting. Four (including the one above) are very recent and from a series of carpet paintings. Edward’s inspiration for these glorious works that are unfortunately not done justice by these photographs included the contemporary bombing of Baghdad, his growing knowledge of Islamic art, and his vision of light. There is also a painting that dates back to 1979, "Study for Entombed Figure. “ It was haunting then. It is even more haunting now.

To see and learn more about Edward’s paintings, please contact Mr. Paul Sartini at sartini7@yahoo.com