An Outsider in Latvia, America & Art: Mark Rothko

by Randall Radic

East Marion Cemetery, Suffolk County, New York:  the odor of pine trees, grass and inactivity loiters in the air. Tall pine trees responsible for the pitch smell stand in the distance like a living, green wall around the cemetery. In symbology, evergreen signifies immortality, which is ironic, since all illusions of immortality have come and gone for the permanent residents of East Marion Cemetery. The dead know only disappointment.

In olden times pine trees were thought to preserve bodies from corruption, which explains why they used it in coffins and in cemeteries. And...