Panels 1 and 2 of Transformation from the Root installed June, 2020
4 for Art, Lenox, MA
Tag: #contemporaryart
Transformation from the Root, #1-5, 2020
These pieces are all on canvas. They each measure sixty inches in height by twenty-two inches in width.
They are made with acrylic, colored pencil and marker. The first layer is acrylic and forms the background. The second layer traces the shapes left by the dripping paint with permanent silver marking pen. The last layer uses a stencil made from a drawing I made of a tree a long time ago. The shapes left by tracing the stencil are colored in with colored pencil.
The title of the series comes from a statement made by Gene Youngblood in a talk on the internet celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of his landmark book, Expanded Cinema. In the talk, he and the moderator were in an exchange regarding how the global society can change using technology as one of its means.
My affection for trees stems from a lifelong interest in how they create intimate spaces in which to linger and how the shadows of the branches are embracing and graceful and evanescent.
Trees are integral to the earth’s environment. The more that trees are brought into human consciousness, the more concern we have for them. Trees have their own forms of growth and communication. They demonstrate when they are hurt and when they are thriving. We cannot take them for granted.
All Tied Up Series, 2019-20
This series was started in the Fall of 2019. The branches are trimmings from a winter-killed holly bush and cuttings from two apple trees by my terrace. The series will continue slowly as I collect new branches.
They carry on from earlier installation pieces done in my studio in 2018.
My intention is to highlight the arresting beauty of the natural forms in a new context. Wrapping the branches with faux leather cord is a means to relate the branches explicitly with my drawn lines.
Tree Kimono, 2019
The Tree Kimono is made in several parts. The total dimensions are 70 inches in width by 90 inches in height. The media are colored pencil and ink.
Shift Series, 2019 – 20
These drawings are all pairs, each part 22.5 square, colored pencil on black rag paper.
Flying Series #1-11, 2002
All these pieces are diptychs, measuring 22″ in height by 44.5″ wide. They are mixed media: charcoal and watercolor crayon. (The thumbtacks are collaterally visible because the photos were taken by me and I didn’t know enough to do something other than that.)
Unknowing Innocence 1-7, 2004
These are all pairs of Paintings, watercolor pencil and acrylic on canvas, 60″ high x total 24 inches wide.
Breaking through the Wall Series, 2004
These are all 22″ in height x 60″ wide, watercolor pencil on paper. (The enlarged photographs show pushpins holding up the drawings. They are not a part of the art.)
Dividing The Gems, 2005-6
All of these drawings are 22.25 ” square, mixed media.
Laos Installation, Details, 2014
These images show the installation of the piece, Naga #2, at the Embassy of Laos in Vientiane, going down the wall from left to right. The textiles are all Lao from different regions of the country. They were gathered at markets and from mills on my visits there.
Many of the small pieces of woven cloth are often incorporated into clothing as borders on skirts or jackets. Some of the large tapestries are used as hangings. The horizontal center blue & Tai Daeng weave tapestry is an antique.
The black “line” is velvet cording, weaving in and out of the spaces between the tapestries. In some places, examples of the silk thread used in weaving the tapestries were stretched out to intertwine with the materials laid out on the wall. I used two thousand brass nails to mount the cording as well as the tapestries. At one point in the middle of the installation, I believed that I was going to run out of nails. So I decided to use the velvet in broad strokes taking it straight across the materials on the wall instead of curving it over or around the tapestries. To some, this falsely appeared as though I was holding up the tapestries when, in fact, it was a pragmatic decision to save the number of nails that I had left. The straight “lines” complement the angularity of the Lao designs; the textile version of the Naga is an example.
The title, Naga, is the name of the mythical dragon-like creature that protects the country. It lives in the Mekong River. Laos is not the only country which reveres the Naga.
These pictures are the only ones that were taken of the piece. I took them when I finished installing it. I take great risk in publishing them here.
