Monday, December 20, 2010

He wanted to meet in the real world

the unsubstantial image which his soul so constantly beheld.  He did not know where to seek it or how but a premonition which led him on told him that this image would, without any overt act of his, encounter him.  They would meet quietly as if they had known each other and had made their tryst, perhaps at one of the gates or in some more secret place.  They would be alone, surrounded by darkness and silence: and in that moment of supreme tenderness he would be transfigured. 
from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

When I read this passage I felt I'd read an exacting description of my relationship to the images I seek to make. 

Friday, December 3, 2010

Final/From Representation to Abstraction





I had a particularly strong beginning drawing class this semester.  They moved swiftly through all the usual drawings, finishing what is typically the final drawing a couple weeks early.  So we got to try out some higher level thinking for the last project.  They grappled with the potentially unwieldy and unlimited possibilities of turning facets of representation into abstraction.  From deeply rendered drawings of cork screws and car engines, tea kettles and chopsticks they made lovely and highly individual abstract charcoal drawings.  I was so pleased yesterday when I saw them all gathered together on the wall.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Andrew Masullo



I love these funny paintings at Feature right now.  I am reminded of how insular good abstract paintings are, how strange they can feel when encountered in the course of a day, today--and how grateful I am for the way they collide with my typical pace.  These make me come to a screeching halt so I can just look, because these are what I want to look at right now.

Facebook doesn't do this, nor email or my blog...or any other blog for that matter.

Our woodstove makes me stop--with its emanating heat pulling me/all of us in.

Other things that still:

Alexander's little hands reaching for me as he wakes--and their warmth

baking

sketchbook work

raking leaves

folding laundry

soup making

singing old hymms

walking Benny

abstract painting/alexander's hands/baking/sketchbook work/leaf raking/folding laundry/soup making/old hymms/walking benny