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| Encounter |
I was clueless at first about what to create for a show entitled, "Body and Soul." Yet in one fell swoop I made a cluster of thumbnails that were the impetus for many finished pencil, colored pencil and watercolor drawings.
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| Meditation |
They have in common the human body, male, female, naked or clothed. They are usually alone, except for the one above where two lone people meet in a windy field.
In each, the person has something psychological or emotional to deal with, which I see as the work of the soul.
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| The Unknown |
Human beings have at their core what George Gurdjieff called "The Three Centers:" the intellectual center, the emotional center and the physical center.
The "Body & Soul" theme suggests to me the dilemmas, the quandaries, the challenges of evolving a soul, something Gurdjieff said, was difficult, but not impossible to accomplish if you work on yourself. In these drawings I try to express these ideas.
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| Perceptive Soul |
Technique first: I started with graphite. I used hard and soft pencils to create tones and textures. The ones on smooth bristol paper have a crisp line, while the ones on a softer paper have a vague, fuzzy look to the line and shading.
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| The Searcher |
This one I call "Searcher." While others have seen other meanings (ie. Kali the goddess of destruction), I intended this male figure to be trying to shine lights to guide his way, determinedly and urgently looking for answers.
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| Walking Meditation |
This is a searcher as well. I call it "Walking Meditation." To me she is aware and unaware at the same time. Perhaps the shapes surrounding her are her meditation, made visual.
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| Paperweights |
Is she alive; is she an amputee?
The statue as I see it, is a stand-in for a real person, but a person who lacks something. What they lack may be "will" or "intention" or something else. But whatever it is, it is keeping her from becoming a fully developed soul.
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| Soul Mates |
And now more cheerful, I hope, interpretations of body and soul. This is the first of the "Soul Mates" drawings, drawn in the month of Valentine's Day and shown at the Pop-Up Gallery in Princeton in the week before the holiday.
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| Soul Mates: Sunset |
Two more were color variations and twice as big as the first.
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| Soul Mates: Spring |
Someone compared them to the artist Magritte's kissing couple, but really, it's an emotional resemblance only. They share a surrealistic attitude. I think I am at heart a surrealist, if I were to venture to label my artistic SOUL.
More drawings are on the way...
