It looks sorry. And that’s the point. I was trying to find a word or a metaphorical title to name this piece. I thought of the word “desolate.” When I thought of that word, I saw the root word “sol” in it, which means sun in Latin. Then I thought of how desolate could mean a metaphorical definition pertaining to “de-sun-ating” something, or abandoning something, or taking the life out of something. I associate the word sol with the word soul. So it could mean “de-souling” something. That, indeed, would make something sorry.
When I was a little boy, I used to collect Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. I remember I found this one Matchbox car that was all beat up one time somewhere, like maybe on a school playground or a parking lot somewhere. It was tossed by another kid who probably got a new car and lost interest in this old beat up one. I liked this car, even though it was all beat up with paint chipping on it. It was like a yellow 1970 Mustang with flames on it. It still raced well in a straight line across my living room floor when I raced it with my other cars.
I liked this little car because I felt like its strength shone through all the abuse it took from its previous owner. The beat up character of the car made me like it even more. To me, as I look back on the lesson of this memory, it means to me that life still goes on after abandonment, and desolation. It doesn’t end. In fact, life can be even more grand, and more fulfilling after being abandoned and desolated because of the abandonment and desolation.
How does this relate to this piece I’m posting now? The beat up, crude, sorry character of this drawing is actually supposed to highlight its utter uniqueness and individuality. The basic design of it—a triangular composition—emphasizes its strength. The triangle, in architecture, is one of the most stable structures.
A couple days ago, I got re-inspired to work on impossible shape ideas as introduced to the art world by Roger Penrose, the famous mathematician. In my skeletal, contour, line drawing work, I like deconstructing shapes, but not completely. Just enough to suggest other possibilities than the completions of corners, shapes and expected endings.
I thought of how the impossible triangle suggests a fourth dimension in a two dimensional drawing as the eye travels around the triangle to see how the fuck it’s possible to end up where one started. This suggested to me a time machine, or a teleportation machine. In this 21st century age, a machine would more likely be called a device, so I named this piece “The Abandoned Teleportation Device” as a possible story of some inventor who tossed this idea away into the annals of trashed history, a place where untold amounts of history are tossed, not to mention all the probabilities that also exist in nascent, unattended states.
It worked out fine in this reality, too, because I actually did teleport one medium to another by using the oil transfer drawing technique. This seriously gives credence to the idea of a ghost imprinting itself from one reality into another, such as ours, and appearing more like an imperfect, “empty”, white noise distorted apparition.
Medium: Ltd. edition print (25)
Dimensions: 35 x 29 inches (not framed)
Framed and with glass, this piece is: $450.00
Unmatted print is: $95.00
I captured this selection of a couple drawings I layered together because it emphasized this concept of letting the forces of nature do their things as I draw and create. Media have minds of their own often times I’ve noticed over the years. It first started with this notion of working with works of art I wasn’t satisfied with and not giving up and loving them anyway. Then it developed into this idea of capitalizing on mistakes as abstract expressionists showed me. Finally I realized I am a part of nature and I act upon and within nature as a natural force myself, so art just became this flow of letting all these forces of nature interact with each other and selecting material that gave me satisfaction. And so I share this satisfaction.
It’s called Pastel Ash because I used pastels to make strikes around the macaroni shape. I digitally amalgamated another drawing I made into this piece. It looks like some weathered trash stuck together you might find by the side of the road. Beside your fallible psychological analysis, I encourage you to find beauty in trash laying around. Maybe you could pick it up and use it for something, like a work of art.
