found abstract comics II

broken 

dim

the complex

scuffed

shadow

scratching at the surface

scratching the surface

graphite, tape, whiteout tape, scratches on translucent mylar

2012

Thinking about language and how difficult it is to translate experience adequately. 

What power does ambiguity hold?

What's lost when we place words on something? 

after Agnes

Agnes Martin

Faraway Love (1999)

Acrylic and graphite on canvas

Estate of Agnes Martin/DACS

as we left New York, Agnes followed in the window of the airport

Erin Curry
after Agnes (2013)
photo

I went to DIA to see Agnes Martin

the light is perfect, the space is seductive on its own
the perfect place for a chapel of minimalism

I walked through Serra
Sol LeWitt
and Smithson
and Richter
and Bueys
and and and

I saved Agnes for nearly last.

Several years ago I came here and fell in love. Her surfaces are subtle, but rich. Grids, but the making is so present, so careful, and human. Seeing her work in pictures is difficult -like trying to see someone's fingerprint in a snapshot of them waving goodbye.

Agnes Martin

Morning (1965)

Acrylic paint and graphite on canvas

Collection of Tate

So I sat with her awhile.

and headed for the exit when I learned I had really come to fall for Robert Ryman. Even more subtle, more quiet, and more difficult to find in pictures.

Robert Ryman
Versions I (1992)
91 x 84 inches, oil and graphite pencil on fiberglass with waxed paper, staples, and nails
Collection of SFMOMA

It was startling to see how his work is often hung with just masking tape, almost provisionally, it's all very much based in the material and ever so quiet. Some of the other minimalists feel like they are so much about exerting power and machismo. These are powerful, but not overtly so. The ones that were the most effective to me seemed as if they were still growing.
Completed, but not executed.
and playful too . . .
There's a sense Ryman takes joy in making these things, as if they are a kind of game.



p.s. Sol LeWitt had a collaborator at DIA.

Sol LeWeb

strips

The dull heat of summer is creeping in and reminded me I have work to post from the fall. The blue marks mimic that of the silkworms I raised last spring.

untitled no. 2
mylar, whiteout tape, encaustic, graphite, and gesso
3" tall
2012

catch and release

catch and release

indigo silk

2013

vessel for the unspoken

This little paper balloon lived in my wallet for a few months. When a quiet moment was needed, I took it out to play. There's something sweet about how it's a vessel for breath and the unspoken. A new series of drawings is in works based on its form.Reading Gwarlingo this morning, I stumbled seeing this quote:

"Erase everything you have written,’ Mandelstam says, ‘but keep the notes in the margin."

sparity culled from overabundance
and then after pushing around the topic in the search bar, this gem:

“There are two kinds of obscurity; one arises from a lack of feelings and thoughts, which have been replaced by words; the other from an abundance of feelings and thoughts, and the inadequacy of words to express them.” -Alexander Pushkin

Perhaps I should pursue a poetry class soon.

found abstract comix

honeycomb (from wiki)

blackout (misbehaving web app)

meter reader 

pallet

excisions

always testing

lookuplookdowndreamingstillgetsusaround