Satanic Nurses and other Comforts
Poems by Mark Arvilla
Coming in off the lake
in the evening coolness.
Hushed voices and
deepening shadows and
the lake still reflecting
the pale light of the sky.
No fish, no sweat. A hot
cup of coffee in the cabin
while the night comes on
like that big-breasted lover
with a soul as sweet
as dark chocolate.
Lying in bed as sleep
steels over me with
a gentle softness and
I hear the tender voice
rustling in the trees
and lapping at the shore.
Pyschic Repairman
a poem by Mark Arvilla
On the corner
of Third and Main,
There’s an odd little shop
with a heart in the window
made of out of red lights
that blink on and off.
On the door,
a neatly lettered
sign reads;
Your Friendly
Neighborhood
Psychic Repairman.
The crowd passes
without a second glance.
But now and then,
some lonely soul
opens the door.
Here is a selection from Mark Arvilla “Marvilla” poetry collection called Satanic Nurses and other comforts.
I could go
I could go into the dusk of this green darkness. A dim figure strolling away across the lawn. Pausing to wave back to you at the treeline and then lost to sight in the forest. A few birds singing sleepily. And everything gently fading into the deeper darkness of night.
Mark Arvilla or MARVILLA took these BLACK AND WHITE photos during a military protest on the beach of Lake Superior prior to his death in 1991.
Here is an article by Tim Anderson published in the news and entertainment weekly of the Twin Ports, Ripsaw. 
In the last few decades “outsider art” has become a buzzword in the art world. The works of the disenfranchised, the insane, the damaged or the developmentally disabled have undergone a renaissance of reappraisement, finding a new gallery spotlight for many who in other eras would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Like Grandma Moses with wacked out sensibilities, these artists often cut through the pretensions of “modern art” and express things purely and undiluted by the filters and preconceptions that burden most. Duluth (Minnesota) seems to be undergoing an “outsider” renaissance of its own, as evidenced by the featured shows here.
MARVILLA AT THE TWEED
Mark Arvilla is Duluth’s own treasure of “outsider” or “fringe” art. While going unheralded his entire life, he was only discovered years after his passing by talking head Michelle Lee of KBJR News 6 fame. In collaboration with his family and the Tweed Museum of Art, the work of Marvilla, as he signed his pieces, is a major collection of vast significance and beauty. Viewed chronologically, Marvilla began in a very detailed, precise form in his earlier works only to strip away those layers of exactitude to practice a more minimal, primal form of simple line and color. Many of the paintings are landscapes and they exude an ethereal, forbidding presence bordering on mystical, finding common ground with the landscape works of the French Nabis artists ande even later Van Gogh.
His later work is a treasure trove of mystical symbolism, frenetic in their composition and color. His final works are directly influenced by the spirit world, and are informed by his contact with a pyschic channeler and increased mystical preoccupations in the last years of his life. His last painting, still displayed on the easel it was found on, seems to be an essay in brdiging the gap between the land of the living and the world of the dead. Marvilla’s artwork wasn’t the only piece of the puzzle he left behind, and volumes of poetry, prose and the manuscript of his autobiography remain to flesh out the rest, as well as audio cassettes of his conversations with the psychic he grew close to near the end. The collection is large, and one hopes that an intrepid UMD student will see the potential for a thesis or monograph in what is certainly one of Duluth’s most interesting art stories.
So my question to the blog-o-sphere is what shall I do with this collection? It has been in storage since the Tweed Museum Show several years ago. Someone suggested a bon fire, others say hang on to them, others say try to sell them. I have no experience in sales…my space is limited and I just cannot consider destroying a man’s lifes work by fire.
Any one out there who may have a suggestion please leave a comment. Thank you.
The following poem is by Mark Arvilla, who died of an overdose in 1991. He was a prolific artist and poet. This poem is from his published works intitled, “RIDING WITH THIS MONGOL HORDE.”
MY FATHER
My father,
who is in heaven,
simplicity is your name.
Your Kingdom on earth is but a trifle
and you left no will.
You read western novels,
hunted, fished, fried chicken for Sunday dinner,
in short: commonplace.
As a sinner, you were
definitely minor league
and you were too ordinary to be evIl.
It was little enought that I gave you
while in this life,
and perhaps for you
that little was enough.
But it would be something of a paradise
to be sitting beside you
in the sauma by the lake
with the sun setting
on a summer evening.
Copyright 2008 REDBIKINILADY
NAMING THE CAT
“Which one would you like?” She asked,
“I’ll take that black, male kitten. And that’s his name: Blackmail.”
Marvilla copyright (c) 1987 by Mark Arvilla
CRIPES
Cripes,
This cat is crazy!
Racing around the room
like a mad monk
loaded with arsenic.
Should I wring his neck
or play mouse?
Marvilla Copyright 1987
POUNCE DE KITTEN ON
Stealthily he crept
across the floor,
paused in mid-slink,
little hinder twitching,
and then he pounced.
Pounched upon nothing.
Nothing at all.
Marvilla copyright 1987
CAT GOES TO THE VET
In December, I took
the cat to the vet.
The cat shivered,
cold and frightened;
clung to my coat.
When I got home, put
his toys in a corner;
a scruffy tennis ball,
a ragged sock,
a cloth mouse
filled with catnip,
a red drum with
a bell inside.
Marvilla copyright 1987
These are some of the slides that reflect Mark Arvilla’s work. I will post more as time permits
This review appeared after the Tweed Museum show…here is a snippet.
“His later work is a treasure trove of mystical symbolism, frenetic in their composition and color. His final works are directly influenced by the spirit world…and are informed by his contact with a psychic channeler and increased mystical preoccupations in the last years of his life…”
I have several tapes of Marvilla talking with his psychic channeler and will be posted some in the future.
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