Monday, February 3, 2014

Under Ice

The island
02-01-2014
charcoal, wash
The delicate fringes of ice around the island indicate the gradually falling water level. The ice is lacy, placenta-like, like a jellyfish sinking and rising in warmer waters. Beneath these thin icy skirts percolate dark watery blobs where the flowing waves touch the ice.

I think how good it would be to take a film and just focus on the mesmerizing blobs (like a Lava Lamp!) but I haven't the technology. And, the world is full of so many stimuli that could be more accurately presented as motion and light. But I'm a draftsman and I draw things and freeze the moments. A drawing is only one of an infinite number of perceived moments. The pictures are like the dark blobs forever flowing downstream.
I wonder how many millions of gallons of moments have flowed between the banks of my mind…

4 comments:

  1. Dear Rob, I'm sorry, but I can not agree with you. A drawing does not freeze the moment , a photograph does, a drawing unfolds itself Always in time. John Berger has written about it, I do not find the book right now. Anyway, I see in your drawings always the wind, the cold, I always hear a duck quacking near by, I look up, if not perhaps the gray heron is there somewhere, I hear the water, and most of all I see you with the sketchbook and pencils, see how cold it is, and then suddenly I get clear, what a wonderful thing it is, to draw, to have a look at the world, at this place, were ever I am, to have a pencil, to draw a line, and then all of these television films can get lost. With the help of your pictures, your stories my imagination produces much better films. Kind regards.

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  2. Klaus, Thank you for bringing John Berger into this commentary. You and he are correct of course: a drawing includes the passage of time and movement (of all things) in its becoming and being. I am lucky that you are familiar with this series of drawn artifacts and can hear the quacking duck when it is not visible in the drawing (perhaps you should see a psychologist or ear doctor!)
    When drawing Nature one can wish for it to slow down so the beauty can be captured. Captured in such a way that suggests the enormous quantity of information and sensation one experiences "sur la motif" à la Cezanne! Alas, I hover somewhere between documentary and testimony.Thank you very much for your thoughtful and fun comments.

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  3. Rob, I have found a great website with sketchbooks of Monet. Maybe you know the books already, but I had so much joy to see the Monet drawings, that I wanted to send you the link: http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/monet/content/sketchbooks.cfm

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  4. Klaus, thank you for the Monet sketchbook link. They are wonderful and revealing. I have a different appreciation for him now. Incidentally, The Clark Art Museum is in Massachusetts.

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