They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
- Jeanette Winterson
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my blog, or take in my paintings, or see Sister Bee in 2008. You inspire me! I look forward to posting more after Christmas. ‘Til then may warmth and wonderment be yours.
My favorite thing about NYC is the layers. It’s just layers and layers and layers of stuff everywhere you look. I had the pleasure of visiting the great city last week. Here are a few of the things I thought you might enjoy.
C.B. I Hate Perfume
Do you love the idea of scent as art but hate regular perfume? If so, I joyfully recommend C. B. I Hate Perfume to you. It’s a wondrous perfume gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with over 300 scents to take in (if you can). The offerings range from a few specialty blended perfumes to a collection of singular accords with names like Old English Novel, Suntan Lotion, Ginger Ale, and Wet Mitten. It’s a magical place. Swoonworthy, actually. If in Brooklyn, you must go.
Richard Serra at the Gagosian
Those of you into encaustic painting should check out Richard Serra’s show Solids at the Gagosian. The show – which runs through December 20th, 2008 – features a series of topographical drawings made with paintstick. (I wonder what brand he uses?)
Here’s a bit about how the drawings are made from the one-sheet at the show.
Melted paintstick is poured onto a hard surface on the floor or a table. Sometimes a sheet of window-screen is placed on top of the liquid paintstick. Then the paper is laid down, either on top of the screen or directly on top of the liquid paintstick. Pressure is exerted on the back of the paper with a hard marking tool and the front side of the paper picks up the mark. In this series no direct drawing is done on the front of the paper… In the Solids series, as the layering of gesture increases, so does the accumulated mass and perceived weight. The effects of compression, torsion, the surface tension of the material and, finally, gravity, all work, as the paintstick coalesces to produce widely varying textures.
So basically… printmaking. For me, these pieces are all about their compositions. The textures are interesting. Integral, even. But it’s the compositions, seen at mid-distance (those raggedy edges!) that thrill me.
Garden of Earthly Delights
Did you ever wish you could see the Hieronymus Bosch painting, Garden of Earthly Delights, interpreted in dance? I didn’t! But I had no idea how beautiful it could be. Martha Clarke’s production at the Minetta Lane Theater captures the joys and horrors of being human in a sensual, scatological, ariel dance performance supported by live musicians (percussion, cello & wind). The painting’s always been a favorite of mine in a Where’s Waldo kind of way.
To see it bigger, click here. It’s intense, I know. But that’s life, eh? (At least in New York.)
Incidentally, the image is divided into nine parts. According to Michael Schnieder “Nine is the final number having a specific identity… The ancient Greeks called nine ‘the horizon,’ as it lies at the edge of the shore before the boundless ocean of numbers that repeat in endless cycles the principals of the first nine digits.”
Snow! We got our first real dumping of the season here in Boulder, Colorado yesterday (a 7-incher) and it’s as fluffy as snow can be. One of the most interesting things about snowflakes is how they’re nearly always formed in the shape of a hexagon, not unlike the wax comb made by bees.
According to Michael Schneider, author of the spellbinding art/math book, “A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe,”
Hexagons contain a message that efficient structure, function and order are occurring… The appearance of crystalline snowflakes is why scientists consider water a mineral. As the temperature drops, H2O molecules vibrate more slowly, slow enough for electric charges within each molecule to attract other molecules and tighten into a hexagonal, close-packed arrangement. More molecules build upon the seed pattern to become beautiful snowflakes, blanketing the world with six-fold symmetry.
I love this book so much, I’ve included a link below. It’s a thought provoking compendium of geometry, art and philosophy.
Another book you might enjoy is “Snow Crystals” by W.A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys. It’s a picture book – hundreds of snow crystals – photographed in 1901 & ‘02. You can check out some of the images here. They are mesmerizing.
Don’t you just love road trips? I had the pleasure of tripping it up to Nebraska for a Sister Bee screening at the Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference right before Thanksgiving. Here are some images from the road.
I’m a nature girl so it’s usually grass and trees that ensnare me. But on this particular trip, trucks ruled. Their primary logos read like emblems from a distant kingdom. My favorites had a map or puzzle-like quality to them. But I enjoyed the simple ones too. And the cattle trucks were exquisite. From a distance they look like simple metal grids. But get close and you can see eyes, noses & hides peeking through.
Great food for painting.
Special thanks to Michael Bush of Bush Farms for hosting such a thought provoking show. I learned some interesting new/old things about beeswax & look forward to posting them soon.
