Time stands still here. Venice at Carnival is the world headquarters for dreamers. Their dreams are visible. They wear them on their backs. There is no need to sense them in the stones, turrets, spires and domes of the city because here the human figure reigns. I was thrust suddenly into a moving sea of parading figures. I painted two dozen pictures of them to catch their bizarre stances and the contrast of their brilliant plumage against the murky night. Somehow paint alone could not express the theatrical, sinister quality of this assemblage and the mixed feelings of admiration and aversion these figures produced in me, so I accompanied the paintings with short poems.

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- Letizia Pitigliani