11:12 AM: I dove back into 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 4 this morning, adding a few collaged elements. the most significant one was a piece of a cut up ink drawing I made a few weeks ago, which you see in the lower right quadrant, and a piece of that, by now famous note I wrote to the ups delivery guy, in blue on the upper left.
if you take a look at the images BELOW of yesterdays version next to what I just did, you may notice that, which todays version is, in a sense more complex compositionally, it is, at the same time, simpler; easier for the eye & mind to absorb, and less literal. so, for example, the patterning surrounding the big drum, which defines the circumference, is now interrupted by a collaged piece of blue map, creating a visual transition from the red to the siena. in general, the predictable rectangular shapes being moved about by the figures have been interrupted and staggered into a syncopated rhythm. an important role in this transformation is played by the blue letters on the upper left. thelonious monk would appreciate what’s going on here..
1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 4 as it looked at 11am today, following some collaging
BELOW: yesterdays version, on the left
every night before we go to sleep, I read a short excerpt from moby dick and from the collected poems of wallace stevens, both of whom I find poetic in a complimentary way. so here’s a paragraph from Moby dick that struck me a few nights ago:
1:35 PM: I started 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 5 this afternoon. right now, it’s just a drawing. i’ve been working all morning and my energy just dropped off, so i’ll pick it up again in the morning, here’s the initial drawing. these two guys are working on an ancient mosaic which survived a major earthquake. so the ripple you see is what happened to the mosaic in the earthquake, but aside from that it wasn’t damaged!