Monday, July 14, 2014

Creating at Djerassi

Today I pulled out Carl Djerassi's (the founder of Djerassi) autobiography to browse.  I read the chapter where he talks about his daughter's suicide and how he subsequently founded this artist residency program in her honor.  She was an artist and among other things struggled with the commercial art scene.  He talks about the artists that have been here - both highly acknowledged ones as well as many who have not received public recognition- and the work that they created that only could have come from their residency here.  It got me thinking what I could create that was specific to this residency.

I decided that I would draw the contours of the landscape, what I could see from my studio and from the artist barn where my studio is located.  I put aside feelings of not be able to draw, and just tried as best I could, using pencil and paper.  I came up with a reasonable approximation.  I then mapped out my drawing in words that I could use to construct movement.  Here is the map:

Map of the horizon from my studio: in 3 movements

Movement 1:  walk - slight rise - small dip - small rise - big dip     Terrain

Movement 2: Blip (tree) - space - big block (trees) tapering down - space - blip - space - 2 blips - small space - small blip - smallish space - 2 blips - medium height block      Vegetation

Movement 3:  level line - disappear - long line of very slight undulations - disappear - shorter line with slight undulation    Horizon

I began working on the first movement today.  We'll see where it leads.

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