Monday, March 23, 2009

InterfaCE IV(a)

Next week, InterfaCE IV will be installed in the Mildred I. Washington art gallery at Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, New York. This version of InterfaCE will be placed on a 4x8-ft piece of canvas. I've been prepping the canvas these last few nights, enjoying the feel of gesso slipping off of a brush.


I ran down the canvas applying gesso, like wind skirts along the ice surface carrying streams of snow. The gesso texture will be barely perceptible when it dries, and will be further obscured by beakers and disks of photographs, micrographs, and paintings. Nevertheless, memories of wind-blown snow are at the forefront of this man's mind.


Tonight I made long, wispy strokes while applying the final layer, thinking about how the wind blows snow across the ice. It's so beautiful to watch, and to sit in. I've spent hours relishing its impact, and sometimes felt guilty about being in its way. But then I realize that millions of snowflakes were rescued by letting them coalesce into shapes on my parka and wind pants.

One day those shapes might reappear as InterfaCE V -- or perhaps they already have in the countless dreams that I don't remember.

2 comments:

  1. NICE WORK!
    I always loved art. I actually wanted to be an art teacher when I was much younger; was an art major in high school, but there was no money for college...I grew up and eventually strayed toward science because there were more jobs in that field and had a family to raise, but one's first true love always comes back, like riding a bike. Art is a release into the true self of being. It sometimes can be as sweet as pie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My story is a bit different: I was definitely born a scientist, but as a youngster my dear granny - who was an artist - nurtured whatever rudiments of interest I had for drawing and painting. How strange it is that half-a-century later those early experiences have so much meaning ...

    ReplyDelete