I half jokingly refer to this as the loom of oppression. It includes lots of monotyping, collaged elements, and some silkscreening.

Mail

Postcards made from images I recently found and enjoyed. Sent 11.6.09. If you want to recieve one, make sure I have your address. Thus far sent to: Kaitly McDonough (Venice), Chelsea Jacks (Nashville), Nabila Santa-Cristo (Miami), Annie Blazejack (Providence), Hope Littwin (Chicago)

Irving Penn

This is from Irving Penn's obituary in the New York Times. Without doubt a beautiful image. I found it quite inspiring how in his life, genuine artistic efforts were harmoniously interwinded with his career, with both tracks supporting each other. And all the while he emerged to be a true giant of 20th century photography.....

Small Referential Print

This is a small print that will refer to a large composition I have yet to get out. It is quite a western-centric way of visualizing, but I see this as my mental image of Rumi. The print is a pronto-plate litho, and the image came from one of my Life World Library books. The photo is actually of a follower of the Druse sect, a group in present day Israel I had never heard of. According to the captions in the Life World Book, they fought for Israeli independence. I can't think of any way to express the rest other than directly quoting the caption: "The Druses, who broke away from islam in the 11th Century, are forbidden to disclose their religious beliefs."

Music Master

You that love lovers,

this is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, love

made this form that melts form,

with love for the door,

soul the vestibule.

Watch the dust grains moving

in the light near the window.

Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,

but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by the one who teaches us,

the pure joy of the sun,

our music master.

--Jelaluddin Rumi

1207-1273

Mail

Received in Venice, June 2009

from Nicole Serize

Mail

Received 10.8.09

from Nabila Santa Cristo

Le Arti

 

Collaged elements, monotype, silkscreen on Japanese paper, hand drawn and painted elements

(I'd be especially interested to see what narrative you might read in the scene)

Mail

 

sent 10.1.09

A Favorite Painting

 Which I used to see frequently in the Galleria Palatina in the Pitti Palace in Florence..... love the distribution of tones, the sense of movement, the central contrast of the figures of Aphrodite and Mars, and the message - an allegorical portrayal of the horrible results of war....

Mail

 

sent 9.29.09

Byzantine Thrones

Byzantine thrones.  The one on the left is in the garden of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, where I was an intern this summer. somewhere along the line, Peggy bought it when the 

museum was still her private home.  (Who doesn't wish they could just go out and buy a Byzantine throne?)

...on the left is another throne on the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon.  It has come to be known as the throne of Attila, because the earliest settlers of the island came to that area to escape the warring movements of aggressive tribes, including the Huns.  It was most likely used as a symbol of authority in the island's early system of communal government. 

These memories from the summer connect to an amazing image I came across in readings for a medieval art history seminar, "Kings, Caliphs, and Emperors:  Images of Authority in the Era of the Crusades."  The Byzantine emperor's throne was flanked by a pair of golden lion statues.  Surrounding the throne and lions were gilded trees full of gold birds.  The birds and lions were automatons.  When a visitor entered the throne room, the lions would roar, and the birds would sing.  On top of all that, the throne would rise up into the air.  All somehow created before the 11th century.

A Big Collage to Get the Year Started

 

57 x 42"

Details

 

 

 

 

Print & Collage

 

collage and monotype

40 x 30"

Collaborations

 

 

The first time I saw paintings like these in person was at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich in late September, 2005.

Currently Reading

For the class "Roll Over Beethoven:  Music and German Literature from             Romanticism to the Present"

Not so recent prints

 

 

 

Comparisons.

Styles of Commemoration.

February(ish) 2009

Recent Print

 

Incorporating found collaged imagery with monotype printing.

45 x 30"

Current Image I Find Fascinating

 

A marble relief by the Venetian Renaissance sculptor Tulio Lombardo.  It is a part of the collection of the Kunsthistorischesmuseum in Vienna, but it can now be seen in an exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, "An Antiquity of Imagination:  Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture."  Wish I could go.....