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.