Fluidity or the lack thereof

Here's a detail of a work in progress... more exploration of that dense, foggy, fuzzy place I call sub- (or un-) consciousness. It's a bit stiff, one of the aspects of myself I'm not so proud of, but I bet I will soften up with time spent. I find the more time I spend at any one stretch just making marks on paper, the smoother, more fluid it becomes.
My friend Lori Hayes bases much of her work on fluidity – of materials, of intent, of the human body. I think I'm finally figuring out some of what she's getting at.

My usual dilemma

I was reading Keri Smith's blog the other day... she often writes about ideas I'm pondering. This time it was about not thinking/ just living. Hard to do, but infinitely better than torturing oneself with clutter.
Anyway, she has a link to Tucker Nichols , an artist who has the simplicity thing down. He posts lots of drawings that just knock me out. Simple and honest and humorous. He reminds me to stop at the simple in my own work.
Like Here (contrast this with last Thursday's post). All the complex drawings start Here.

See Keri's July 23 entry: www.kerismith.com/blog/
And Tucker Nichols 'What a day': www.tuckernichols.com/2007_07_27_archive.html

Ripen on the vine

Here's a piece I've been working and reworking. I posted it a month or so ago. See how it's changed... (June 17: No mind drawings)

Gestural insects

I've been pondering this drawing for weeks, hanging on the studio wall... it is one of the gestures I made of that odd root/tuber Hal found out in the yard (see 'What in the world ...', entry, April 21). I kept turning it and turning it and drawing with a bamboo pen.
Now I have a few other roots and am re-ignited about exploring them as perhaps a social study. I love the insect-like quality of the pieces, the heavy and the delicate. I have big paper on which to work with them.
All day I hear the cicadas humming outside the studio.

Map of Paris

I've been at home this week, my sister- in-law Ana Darlene was visiting, so I drew hardly at all. We spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water. We also made books. Here is mine, it's covered with a colorful map of Paris and bound with red ribbons and sisal. The paper is an all-cotton ivory, just right for an ink pen. The making is so sweetly Zen, simple and ritualistic with some repetitive elements of sewing and gluing. Now I have a present for my friend Lorna in Ireland.
Pondering the nature of creativity, a clear mind and healthy life.

Lesson for Today

Driving to work in my truck, I was listening to Fresh Air. Their film critic- at-large, John Powers was reviewing a release of two old films by French director Chris Marker: La Jetee and Sans Soleil.
He talked about Marker, now in his 80s, as a man who makes films about all the parts of his life – experience, history, politics, travel, mystery.
And then he called Marker the precursor, or 'gold standard', of 21st-century blogging. It's not enough to put down our thoughts, ideas, photos, video and drawings... we must also be reflective; we must connect our ideas; document the way we live now.
I think he was talking to me. I know the threads of connection are here. I know I want to discover them. But I get lazy. I forget that the recording of living is important.
Here's a link to that interview:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12004490&sc=emaf

Find what you're looking for

Strike a match in the dark, a light that niggles at the edges of things hidden.