Of course after I post on no visitors I have like 3 great studio visits in succession...just goes to show...the power of blogging? anyways, Victor came and made a point: art at wesleyan is all about teaching restraint, thats cool if its your thing, but its only one philosophy of art. It's something I don't consider often enough.
Then Ray Tintori showed up, and made some encouraging remarks, but mostly that was just nice because I really like remembering that there are people like Ray. And he showed me great pictures of the boat Benh and he and Rob built. But the best, most thought provoking conversation was with Frank Lyon. We talk very well together, and luckily I realized early on that I wanted to record every second of our speaking to each other, so when came to my studio today we talked about all sorts of crazy stuff and I unrolled all my drawings to show him and I got a really solid interpretation of the work as a whole, which so far I've never recieved. As a matter of fact, this was the first time I looked at more than 2 of them together at the same time. It made me realize that the third drawing is WAY lighter than the other two, and as Leslie pointed out during our crit yesterday, it has such a graphic component that is totally new.
Frank and I talked a lot about this new figurative element, since this was the in progress drawing up on the wall when he came in. He asked me about the repetition of the characters, and he was really invested in the idea of TEXTILES. He saw the pattern in this drawing and it informed his reading of all the other works. I said that the characters would be drawn similarly throughout, but that even when the prints repeat, the drawings will reflect their integration into the landscape of the cloth so they'll appear different in each instance. He said that reminded him of Hieronymous Bosch, that there were different people and narratives happening in one painting, and that you could read it almost linearly, and taht they possessed a certain temporal quality.
---temporal is a really interesting word choice here, check out the OED: . Lasting or existing only for a time; passing, temporary. Now rare or merged in 2. 2. Of or pertaining to time as the sphere of human life; terrestrial as opposed to heavenly; of man's present life as distinguished from a future existence; concerning or involving merely the material interests of this world; worldly, earthly. (Opp. to eternal or spiritual.) 5. a. Gram. and Pros. Relating to or depending on the quantity of syllables (i.e. the time taken in pronouncing them). 6. In general sense: Of, pertaining, or relating to time, the present time, or a particular time.---
--He mentioned also that the drawing was EPISODIC, as opposed to being repetitive...that the images had new meanings, different meanings, rather than existing static.
-most people obsessed with drawing fabric are concerned with fabric, bu thtese are charged objects, either my own charge, or what i intuit from them...this provides a point of tension PUNCTUM.
also bringing the humane into the landscape is a difficult task...Frank talked about his dad's painting show, and breaking down the space, allowing for semi-independent action...as opposed to having UNITY, something completely united is more finite and less open to interpretation than a fractured image, a representation of complicated space.
These were all really pithy comments that made me realize I had still never tried to define my thesis or describe what effect I expect the drawings to have or waht they're about...

In looking at the blue drawing Frank talked about the blue cromatica paper being actually a point of departure from the drawing and how it worked narratively in a way similar to the figures in drawing# 3. They are physically further ahead, eye-pricking peaks: points of "punctum" (that which pierces the viewer). This term is from Barthes Camera Lucida

-The words he used to describe the blankey drawing were- "ghost-muscle", wood,
-More emotional data to explore from when you begin with an object you have a sentimental relationship with.
--Looking at it is almost the furthest I can get from being iwth it
examining and analyzing is really far from relating or BEING with something.
Inherently condescending quality of the anthropologist (or art critic)
-I've earned the right to analyze these objects because i've lived with them...
-i describe the silk dress as a "landmark", in my life. which is also a geographical location.

Textile is a word I haven't considered at all in relation to the drawings. Here's the OED's definition of it: 1. a. That has been or may be woven. Also, of or pertaining to a man-made fibre or filament, not necessarily woven.Fibrous material, as flax, cotton, silk, etc., suitable for being spun and woven into yarn, cloth, etc.
--i like the spinning of material into line (one dimensional) and then weaving it into planes (two dimensions) then cutting and sewing it into volume (3D!!).

-in terms of cohesiveness of body of work: i feel like i;ve been absent from the conversation between the pieces, frank says, but you're hte mediator, and i say, but shouldn't the mediator be REALLY AWARE of what's going on>? and then i realize that i'm more like the typist, the recorder, literally, of the conversation, the event, the object is speaking to me, and instead of listening to it, im just transcribing it into a language that everyone else can read.

-we also talked about Kant, his theory of perception as having two components
1) sensory- physical perception, consideration of formal elements, etc
2)conceptual- intellectual perception, association and understanding of idea
the ideal viewing experience is the result of both aspects of perception being blown away...the work must impress you on both levels equally to have full impact.

when i showed him my blog book he asked if i'd read Ulysses. i haven't. Frank said the last chapter of Dubliners, which i have read when i was too young to absorb it, i think i actually found it offensively inaccessible, a story called "the Dead" does in 30 pages what Joyce tried to do in his entire oeuvre. I have a copy of Camera Lucida here now, so my next post can excerpt from Barthes and hopefully more Joyce as well.

the visits i meant to document were victor, ray and frank, but since i'm still in the studio here's today's full guest list: ray tintori, emily keeler, frank lyon, lee pender, will hood, chris campisi.