i implore you
(warning: plenty of thinking-aloud in order to gain new insight)
Ok... here's an optional call-and-response. I'm really enjoying painting lately, but I have all these wily directions that I can't seem to wrangle into a cohesive verbal-mental package. And I have a show coming up that I need to name and somewhat explain (Whoo-- I really sound like my senior students who are preparing their first solo shows. Guess it never really changes).
For years-n-years I worked from a pretty rich but simple place-- I basically took walks and stared at patterns and then tried to replicate the effects of nature's drifts and scatters (thus the name of this blog). It was, and still is, endlessly interesting to me to observe the way that objects and creatures would flock in overlapping clouds of function and activity, moving around one another with responsive arcs. My work was a visual meditation on the underlying structures of the world, as well as a deep appreciation for the balance of simplicity and complexity in these organic systems.
Having been a fan of Wendell Berry for a time, I was very excited to run across an article by him called "Solving for Pattern," in which he describes a way of thinking about agriculture in terms of the many interlinking patterns that life falls under. This was a good leap for me from the place I was-- it gave an extra conceptual well to draw from, and also got me thinking about how human beings are both governed by and disruptive of natural systems. Which is where things get hairy (pun intended). I'd been failing to notice the human mediation in the ways that I was perceiving the world of flora and fauna. That's what started me on the series of disparate animals standing nose-to-nose, along with more scientific-mathematical notations. In a nutshell, it was about the ways that we document and preserve information about animals and other parts of creation-- in ways that alienate them from their integrated homes. Not entirely cynical, but critical of the limits of our ways of knowing... poking a little bit of fun.
And then this happened:
...and so did this:
..and before I knew it, I was dealing in "phantasmagorical fauna" as they have recently been described, and implied architecture. Everything was becoming overgrown with hair that moved like water and breaking into planes. I think about a million things when I'm making these, but it's one of those weird moments when the work asks to be made, and I don't have a tight grip on what it's about. The two top images are present works in progress. So-- what do you think?
posted by gala @ 9:58 AM
5 Comments:
This is an amazing entry! To see the movement through each piece and hear of your thoughts behind them is fascinating!
It seems your current pieces have moved from commenting on the state of your discoveries to carrying the weight of that knowledge, which both deepens and complicates these pieces.
The intersection of man-made structure and beyond-us nature, brings a tension that pulls us in two. . .forces beyond us, working with us and against us. . .sometimes controlled and sometimes out of control.
Just my observations, I really love this new direction. I'm eager to hear what others offer.
carrying the weight of that knowledge... that's a great foothold for me. and there's very much a tension between control and lack of it. thanks so much for your observations!
A couple things come up for me.
1. I think about ideas surrounding the void. How we call attention to the void, but also create voids - sprawling and filling at the same time. I see that kind of imagery erupting (and contracting) in your pieces. Abstracting and Forming.
2. I've personally been thinking a lot about the Judeo/Christian idea of God's glory being something that fills the earth, but also something that we petition to come down. "Send your Glory", "The whole earth is full of His glory"
That idea has been playing out in my work a lot lately, and is the reason that I was drawn to your imagery.
I love these, Gala. They remind of the doodles that you would do while talking on the phone when we lived together. I might still have a few of those because I never could throw them away!! There's a freedom to them. I don't know that a concrete 'why' is necessary with these?? ...but I have no doubt that you will find the words. :)
Seriously, I am thoroughly enjoying each one and wish I could see the whole show. Laura
etrine: i confess that i've always had trouble relating to the word "glory," maybe because we use it in such a different way in contemporary life (i.g. "blades of glory")... but it is visceral-ethereal at once to think of a substance that FILLS the earth... especially after reading your description of eruption and contraction. i'm having a hard time wording this, because it's an almost physical sensation... i oughtta do an interpretive dance :)
laura: the doodle world never seemed to be at home in larger scale until now. maybe that's why it seems vulnerable.
anyway, thanks so much for indulging me, and creating a casual critique session.
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