Inscriptions

Here's a quote from Tzonis & Giannisi's Classical Greek Architecture: the Construction of the Modern. (This is a stunning book.) On a drinking cup in a child's grave the following inscription:

"[I am] the famous drinking cup of Nestor. Whoever drinks from this cup, straightaway the desire of Aphrodite of the beautiful garland will seize him."

Aphrodite of the beautiful garland. Wow!

Add INSCRIPTIONS to stellae and knotted topo canvas, ideas that might be accumulating as "small, random events early in the process" of the next, possibly path-dependent project…

The Topo Experiments

A detail of the original piece in its burnt sienna phase. It's now white with primer again. Since doing the smaller piece below, an uncertain future opens for this larger two panel piece.

The smaller experimental piece (9 x 13 in) in raw umber; interesting & inconclusive. Pieces like this cause me to notice quotes like Atul Gawande's in the January 26th New Yorker: "With path-dependent processes, the outcome is unpredictable at the start. Small, often random events early in the process are 'remembered,' continuing to have influence later." (p.30) Though path-dependence is a name social scientists have for a pattern of evolution based on past experience, I'm not averse to taking the quote as received information, separate it from context, and apply it, almost as an oracular pronouncement, elsewhere.
But, Gawande continues: "…as you go along, the range of future possibilities gets narrower. It becomes more and more unlikely that you can simply shift from one path to another…" This part needs to be tested, right this moment it seems a dreadful long term pronouncement, if true. Holds up as generally true in the short term, say, in the course of a single painting or a series of works. Many artists radically change course from time to time–or so it seems. What about lifetime to lifetime?

Experiment

Wonder what would happen to tie up canvas as though to tie-dye, but just to set wrinkles? Threw some coins to get a random spread, tied up the canvas, got it wet, and let it dry–thought that might help to set wrinkles (results inconclusive). Later untie the strings and spread out the canvas. Hmmm, looks like a topo map. Priming the canvas flattens the "mountains" a bit. Give it two coats both sides. This takes a couple of days prep. Today rub on the pigment–burnt sienna–very interesting, but not quite the right color. Will re-prime tomorrow & use raw umber so the canvas will look like leather. Check back tomorrow and see.
Oh, a 100yd. roll of canvas arrived. Impossible to move as is (130lbs.) so RS builds a gizmo to roll canvas smoothly onto another roll. Look.

School Starts

Yes, tomorrow in the classroom. Introduce the visual autobiography. More work to do on mine, happily. It's like the "project genealogy" I started once—a tangled web of relationships lap, overlap.

Another panel card. Looks a bit like stone.

Random Research

CU has an extensive art & architecture library–and a bus stop practically at the door, nice when lugging art books. Spend time there when in between things, random research. Today, magazines. Draw pictures of carved conus shell disks from Mauritania and an Malipo-style embroidery motif from south west China. No patience for reading today, just looking and drawing.

Hovering project: make a stele, wood covered with canvas and painted. See in the notations on the sketchbook page a reference to a Peter Doig portrait: can I make a portrait of a place? What would it look like? A Miyazaki spirit? (Received "Spirited Away" as a Xmas gift.) The idea for the stele is a merging of the Earth Altar topo maps from [ARMY] and images of Riera i Aragó's stelae in the book of his work Reira i Aragó: Iconography found at the Trident (independent bookstore, Boulder CO). His work new to me, the bronze islands, the submarines, each in its own formal pool–beautiful. It was reading some text in this book, that I recognize pathos is often a key attribute in art that really moves me. No, it's a mix–of wonder, timelessness, and pathos. Had the idea some weeks ago to make a visual autobiography, a compilation of images that rile me in the best way. The document title is "Silent, Vivid, Blade-like," the closest description of what moves me in art. The first image is Cy Twombly's "Pan" and the second image is Cy Twombly's "Vengeance of Achilles." Even without the title and the literary reference, this one causes a gasp, the image itself seems to carry the outrageous desecration, even though the "image" is utterly symbolic, or perhaps because the image is utterly symbolic. These two are followed by two Cy Twombly sculptures and a Cycladic figure (visibly timeless). More on this project as it develops.

While I'm waiting to re-engage [ARMY], as the season to turns I'm experimenting with panel cards again. This time trying gesso, absorbent ground, and gouache.
Two from this week.

[ARMY] Installation & Performance Anniversary

A year ago, [ARMY] opened at Naropa University's Nalanda Gallery in Boulder CO with the performance of Soldier Cry. Today the "soldiers" are in repose at Mountain Water. They await their next deployment, summer 2009. They'll be set out in this meadow in a grand diamond pattern.
Not able to upload the pdf of the next stage. Email me if you'd like it sent to you. Here is the cover photo.

Trepidation

A new blog, not like swimming: jump in or inch in…
Simply in already.
A few pictures. Ideas, artistic research threads to follow.