Pastel Journal - USA (2019-05)

Skill Builders

theexposedwallbetweenthem.A

horizontallinepresentsnoproblem

becausetheeyeeasilybridgesthegap,

buta longdiagonallineis tricky.I had

twooptions:Onewouldrequirethat

thepanelsbehunga fixeddistance

apart,andtheotherwouldallowthe

distancebetweenthepanelstovary

(seethesketchesonpage13).Not

knowinghowa buyermighthangthe

panels,I electedthevariableoption.

Newchallengesoftenbringnew

waysofseeing.I initiallywasattracted

tothetraincarbecauseofitsweath-

eredstate—aging,neglected,its

usefullifeover.I sawit asa metaphor

forhumanlife.Butshowingit inthree

partstransformedmyvisionofit.For

onething,thetriptychembodiesthe

essentialideaofa trainasa linkageor

concatenationofparts.Foranother,

it seemstoimpartmovementtothe

subject,justasanobservermight

experiencea passingtrainina series

ofglimpses.Perspectivecontributed

totheeffect.Thetrainwasmoving

towardme.Inthesegmentedroof,

I sawbothrustandthehazyreflec-

tionsofa modernskyline—pastand

present,stasisandmovement,allina

singleimage.

LargerthanLife

Myambitiontopaintbigtook

anotherturnwithOntheGrid(below).

I wantedtomonumentalizehumble

kitchenimplements,paintingthem

largerthanlife.I happenedupon

theminanoldtobaccowarehouse

repurposedasanantiquesmall.

I didn’tknow—andstilldon’t—

whatallofthemwereusedfor.

I wantedtoportraythemasinterest-

ingobjects,apartfromtheirutility

orprice.Infact,I eliminatedallbut

twooftheoriginaltags,andthese

I madeunreadable.

Inrenderingsmallthingsbig,

I’mconsciousoffollowinga long

tradition.I wasoftenremindedofit

duringmyvisitstotheCincinnati

ArtMuseumwhenI livedinthat

area.StandingbeforeFranzKline’s

hugeabstract,HorizontalRust, I read

abouthisbreakthroughintoabstrac-

tionism:“Thedecisivemomentcame

uponseeinghisownsmall-scale

representationalworksenlargedby

a projectortothepointatwhichthe

subjectbecameunrecognizable.”

Mypurpose,however,wasnever

tomakethesubjectunrecognizable

buttoenlargeit tothepointwhere On the Grid (21x45) relies on a triptych

to exaggerate the size of kitchen utensils.

the viewer might look at it in a new

way—might actually see it for the

first time.

This purpose also guided my choice

of a multipaneled format. I wanted

to highlight the dignity of simple

things. Far easier to have clustered

these objects in a single frame. They

belonged to the same category—

kitchen implements—and maybe

even occupied the same kitchen

drawer for half a century before end-

ing up together in an antiques mall.

The triptych acknowledges their com-

monality by displaying them against

a uniform background in all three

panels—what’s more uniform than

a pegboard?—while at the same time

accenting their individuality, extend-

ing two of them into adjacent frames

for attention-getting effect and

showcasing others with positions of

prominence within their own frames.

Stone and Steel

I now live in Asheville, N.C., and

my walks often take me past the

construction at the Asheville Art

14 Pastel Journal JUNE 2019