Source of the Spiral, Part 4

My first experiments involved using a stone to form a divot in watercolor paper. This is a detail from a drawing I made while staying on the island of Møn in 2004.



It was interesting but still not quite what I was getting at so I put it on the back burner for a few years. The idea stuck in my head but also metamorphosed. It was altered by other forms that I saw around me, in particular a wild rose bush whose blooms were extremely abundant. So in 2008 I tried again. Also with paper. This time I used cut up water bottles to support wet paper into rounded forms.



This was getting closer but it wasn't until I switched to canvas and began to sew that it really took shape. Blue Cups is one of the earliest spiral pieces. It was made in 2008 not that long after the last paper attempt. It was organized like the bumpy cement patterns I saw on the street in Harrisburg.

Source of the Spiral, Part 3

The rock carvings in Tanum were painted red which created a striking connection, in my mind anyway, between the cup symbols in the rocks and the seemingly random dots that decorate the Elmelunde Church on the island of Møn, Denmark. You can see them in the two close-up shots below. Six dots circling a central 7th dot creating what looks like a little flower. But I immediately felt that those dots must have been drawn from the pre-Christian cup marks that, flattened into two dimensions, are dots. And it seemed to me that a simple, but powerful symbol was transported from one way of thinking to another. Brought forward in time even if it lost it's meaning shortly thereafter. This is total speculation on my part. The great thing about being an artist is that I can make a connection like that and run with it. It's not terribly important that I'm right (although I'd love to see someone follow up on that idea) but just that it gives me something to think about. In this case how critical symbols are maintained through major social changes like new religions and political upheaval.

Source of the Spiral, Part 2

Just before traveling to Denmark we drove though Sweden. While there we visited the rock carvings in Tanum. I can't find the proof to back up my memory but somewhere I read that the many cup indentations were likely fertility symbols. Not necessarily in a human reproduction sense, although not excluding that, but in the broader sense of prosperity for the community.


A particularly beautiful section of petroglyphs shiny with the rain that fell during our whole visit.


Here a figure with a large hand holds many cups. These cup symbols were liberally scattered amongst the carvings.

Source of the Spiral, Part 1

I was asked about the source of my spiral works. The answer to that question is multifaceted. One of the main things I look for in choosing forms is a kind of universality. I want to work with forms that are meaningful but that are meaningful to different people in different ways. So I look for forms that are powerful but open. One of my earliest sources of inspiration for what became the spirals was found in Møn, Denmark. The island is populated with ancient burial mounds. These include large boulders and you can actually go inside some of them. I'm not positive if the rock below is part of a burial mound but it is covered in carved out "cup" divots. These divots are fertility symbols.


Climbing up to the rocks.


A view of the fields.


Close-up of the rock and divots.

Wisteria Time

I took a walk down the road to photograph the wild wisteria. It's a great spot because the bridge allows you to be midway up the tall tree the wisteria vine has rapped itself around. One large tree that previously supported wisteria fell in the snows this winter. If I had a kayak it would be fantastic to paddle along the water and see the fallen tree with it's beautiful blooms of wisteria.

My work in Drawing Magazine Spring 2010

The following are a few pages from the article that includes my work. This spring issue of Drawing Magazine should hit the news stands soon. My work is on the final pages of the article. Check out the magazine to read the whole article by Ken Procter.

Paulownia Trees

I got a special request to identify these trees from a previous post. Thanks to Ask-A-Gardener Service at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society I have discovered that these trees are Paulowina Trees. I admire their spring blooms as well as their ability to grow almost anywhere. Below are photos of a Paulowina tree growing out of the side of a building.





These are images from my original post about the trees.

WTF

Since I've been having problems loading photos onto the blog I decided to update it. The idea is that updating will somehow solve my weird photo issue. In the mean time I had some fun choosing colors. A little something different for now anyway. I doubt it will last long. (Because it's ugly!!! But maybe a little ugly is just what I need right now)



ARGH! This is some what I see when I load a photo:

onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Ulh6or-JRqjbEbTnXEFOGzmmmtmC-XmFpnTpclooRZztzgsr5VQ84ssgrkOjk_LoVHJP-RjH8mY3paJgrP6uzbUMfoP_1NMPjSvFtdmtiFeFhR9sNLtTc2N4gJf8E4XHw8XMR-h6jBQ/

It's so much less fun in hypertext!!!!! Anyway this photo is from the studio last week. Just the beginning of a large spiral based work I'll be making for the next month or so.

Home

Dirt

"image of dirt"

Working in my community garden plot today made me think of my blog. I'm missing a lot of last years enthusiasm because of the weeds. I think I was too ashamed to post a photo of my garden at the end of last summer.

"image of garden submerged by some crazy vine weed"

But as you can see here (in your minds eye) it wasn't pretty. So I waited until the day after the last possible moment to go dig some dirt. Yesterday was the 'must plant by date.' I don't feel so terrible ignoring it since it's too early for most of what I want to plant. But I went over and spent an hour making a row. I've altered my expectations. Last year I actually laid out a pretty design. This year I dug a row and put down kale, spinach, two kinds of lettuce and radish. And my only objective is to protect the row. I must defend the row from the diabolical weeds. This will be even more difficult because I didn't actually remove all the weeds from my little trenched off row. I just buried them.

Spontaneous Repetition

For reasons that are completely unknown to me Blogger is now showing my images as a gazillion letters and numbers in Edit mode. This is making it very difficult to do anything with the images. Perhaps I need to load smaller ones or upgrade something or another. At any rate I was going to load images from both shows in this post but the whole thing is taking too long. So for now I'll just leave you with these tidbits from our group show "Spontaneous Repetition."

Henry Bermudez

I should have posted this earlier. I'm not taking my blogging responsibilities very seriously these days. This is a great piece by Henry Bermudez from his show at the Painted Bride last month.

Home opens this Friday!!

Here's another sneak peek of my show at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia. The opening is this Friday from 5-7pm.

George Hughes comes to Philadelphia

March is a great month for shows. I have two (wink, wink) and Haverford College is bringing artist George Hughes in for a three day extravaganza. This will be my first chance to see Hughes's performance work. I know from past experience that he gives a great lecture.

Spontaneous Repetition

Spontaneous Repetition is hung. It will be at StrataSphere Gallery in Philadelphia until May 1. The opening is this Sunday, March 28, 2pm-5pm.

Sneak Peek

This is a sneak peek at a new work that will be in my show "Home" at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia. The show opens April 2.

Love

I love this piece by Josh Faught.

Andy Piedilato at English Kills

Sunday we drove up to see Andy Piedilato's new paintings at English Kills Art Gallery. I love Piedilato's work and the gallery space. It's well worth the trip to Brooklyn to see.

NYC Snow and Mural

Bill Jensen at Cheim and Read

I loved the Bill Jensen show at Cheim and Read. The colors were wild and the textures wonderful.


The image below is a detail of the image above.

George Hughes

Our sloshy snowy tour of NYC took us to another great opening. George Hughes has an exhibition of paintings at Skoto Gallery in Chelsea and is coming to the Philly area at the end of the month for a lecture and performance at Haverford College.

Animate Matter

Thursday we ignored the snow to drive up to NYC for a couple openings. Dona Nelson is in a show at Thomas Erben Gallery called Animate Matter. the show includes Richard Staub, Pia Maira Martin, and Rose Wylie. It's well worth the visit. I didn't take as many photos as I should have but I love these two detail images of Dona Nelson's work.

Back Again

I've gotten my camera back out after it's long winter break. I've adjusted to my life and work schedule. And I've gotten the blogging itch back. Of course I have a million beautiful snow images but I think everyone has enough snow of their own. Not to mention the fact that this snow may still be around in July. I'm thinking we have the real potential for glacial formation in the Philadelphia suburbs this year.

This image from the National Aquarium pretty much sums it all up.

Family Gatherings