I was away most of the week at my nephew’s wedding in Bentonville, AR in the Ozark Mountains. It was a great time – lots of dancing
I brought with me both the printer glitch and the drawing of the printer glitch that I posted about last week to have on hand to look at and think about while I was away. The bifurcation evokes a pressure and the curve at the bottom implies a connection, which is where I wanted to put my focus on the next iteration. When I got home, I made more copies of both, which altered the color in a way I really liked, and collaged the two together to see if what I saw in my mind’s eye would work. It’s a good next step.
Bentonville is home to Crystal Bridges Museum, the closest museum to Memphis with my favorite collection (five hour drive). I didn’t get to spend much time in the museum this trip, but I did pop in specifically to revisit Nocturn: The Solent, ca. 1871-1872 by Whistler.
Like an Agnes Martin painting or a Fred Sandback sculpture, this painting is hard to capture. I get lost in the negative space and the atmosphere and mood of the gray-green. I didn’t know this until recently, but ‘The Solent’ is the strait between Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain. I like to imagine Whistler painting there.
I also spent some time with Gems of Brazil ca. 1864/65 by Martin Johnson Heade, a series of paintings of hummingbirds and butterflies. I want to make a new glitch drawing that’s very atmospheric but with a pop of color in the crook inspired by this Hooded Visorbeare.
And finally, this is the cover image of the Joseph Buey’s book of drawings called Thinking is Form that I flip through a lot. For Felt Corners, 1963 was on my mind a lot while I was away – it’s division, the mirror images of the triangles, the barely there marks in the background.
