submerged

These two are the newest of a series that's been incubating in my studio for sometime now. They explore symmetry, the impulse to find closure in the abstract and the push/pull of an image not quite on the surface. Constructed in layers, it begins as an inkblot overlaid with a tangleprint made with graphite and handspun cotton thread and mounted on wood and finally wrapped in mylar. The mylar softens the whole image particularly because it doesn't quite lay flat on the surface. Looking at the work feels a little like looking through a fog at a strange reflection.

Erin Curry. tangleblot (same but different ○). ink, handspun thread graphite print under mylar on wood. 6"x6" ©2012

Erin Curry. tangleblot (same but different ○○). ink, handspun thread graphite print and mylar on wood. 6"x6" ©2012

These left the studio as gifts for twin girls yet to be born. It felt appropriate that a developing idea might be given to new life and echoed the little warm knot memory of my own mother who was a twin. She and her twin developed a little mythos between them that always held an element of the sacred to me.

A dozen more are in the works as I experiment with altering colors and the mark the ink and graphite leave. They feel visceral, alien and insect-like by turns. The word "Oracular" rolls around and around in my mind as I make these. A circuitous route of associations and desires left whirling in their wake. These pieces seem connected to reading tea leaves and taking Rorschach tests. Though many see inkblots and immediately think "Rorschach test," that test is actually not just any inkblot, but a set of ten specific images used again and again to analyze a psychological state. I'm most interested in our general compulsion to find the recognisable in the abstract rather than the specific analysis of a person, though they seem interconnected.

Meanwhile my silklings are nearly-almost-maybe ready to cocoon. 

cloud collecting

My recent research has included an increasing number of cloud captures. Powerlines still make their appearance too, but mostly it's the clouds with wisps I'm captivated by.

Browsing in a dusty used bookstore serendipitously turned up a Cloud Atlas which teaches one how to identify cloud species. Apparently clouds, like plants and animals, have latin species, genus names, and even matrilineage.

One I found online reads like poetry:

"Fibrous, threadlike, white feather clouds of ice crystals, whose form resembles hair curls." (of cirrus)

"Heap cloud with flat basis in the middle or lower level, whose vertical development reminds of the form of towers, cauliflower or cotton." (of cumulus)

In another, the latin roots are broken down,
cumulus to "heap"
stratus to "layer"
cirrus to "curl of hair"
altum to "height, upper air"
nimbus to "rain"

the genera presented and linked to photographs,
and then (and then!) the species are described with all the respect and awe of a witness to the ephemeral

fibratus uncinus spissatus castelanus floccus stratiformis nebulosus lenticularis fractus humilis mediocris congestus

possessing filaments hooked to make thick castle tuft of wool layer appearance nebulous lentil to fracture near ground, small medium to heap up

cirrostratus fibratus cirrus uncinus cirrus spissatus altocumulus castelanus cirrus floccus altocumulus stratiformis stratus nebulosus altocumulus lenticularis cumulus fractus cumulus humilis cumulus mediocris cumulus congestus

that not being enough, there's varieties to contend with,

intortus vertebratus undulatus radiatus lacunosus duplicatus translucidus perlucidus opacus

to twist having vertebrae having waves being radiant having holes double transparent light pass through shadowy, thick

and supplements and accessories,

incus mamma virga praecipitatio arcus tuba pileus velum pannus

anvil udder stick a fall bow, arch trumpet cap sail of ship piece of cloth, shred

Does it get any better than that?

From my own continually growing cloud collection: