Look, See

Thirty Leaves

 

 

Thirty Leaves, April 2006, HTML, 365 x 265 pixels each

Above is a GIF representation of the Thirty Leaves drawings made during April. This is not an accurate representation. In reducing this representation to 50% some of the details are lost. For example, some of the lines of the internal figures in the first drawings in the first and second rows are lost. The second drawing in the second row is unusally crunchy. As always, a compilation page has been made where you can see the drawings at full size in HTML.

These thirty drawings were made during April 2006, one each day. This practice relates to the previous two months, during which the drawings I made spanned an entire month, resulting in 28 drawings during Feburary and 31 drawings during March. Making a series that spans a month seems a good way to go because it sets me up for something that will fit on the calendar with a definite beginning and ending, and the length of the series forces me to commit to and extend something over a long time.

I didn't set out with any thought other than using this kind of winged rectangle kind of shape- a rectangle with two squares notched out of the two bottom corners. This shape echoes a series made in June 2004 called 18 Hummingbirds. This choice was influenced by the fact that in February all the dimensions of the drawings were the same shape, and each that March drawing was a different size, but they all had the animated GIF in common. The shape I chose for April could be repeated the entire month and also be something a little more dynamic than a strict rectangle, even though they didn't continue the use of an animated GIF.

It wasn't until I did the sixth drawing, Minaret, that I recognized a kind of theme, which I'll identify only by saying that the single-word noun and verb titles seem very apt to the season and month during which Easter occurs.

Wikipedia 1-28, February 2006

 

Chris Ashley: Wikipedia 1-28, February 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels each

Above is a 50% view GIF of this series made during February, 2006. The idea behind these was simple: read "Today's featured article" at the Wikipedia each day during the month of February and use the the topic as the subject for a drawing. I chose a vertical rectangle, which I tend to use a lot these days. I wanted a small, compact format, and I made them all the same size. I learned a thing or two reading the twenty eight topics daily. I think I could explain how each subject is related to the day's topic, but let me be quick to point out that there is no attempt to make each drawing an illustration of the topic. These continue the use of straight and simple HTML, and employ, confront, attempt to stretch, and ultimately submit to the limitations of this medium. Lookit all the purty colors.

You can view the full-size compilation in HTML, which also lists the topic of each drawing.

Left to right, top to bottom:

1. Radhanite (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

2. Adriaen van der Donck (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

3. Restoration spectacular (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

4. Comet Hyakutake (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

5. Music of Nigeria (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

6. Hurricane Dennis (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

7. Sino-German cooperation (1911-1941) (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

8. Sydney Riot of 1879 (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

9. Mount St. Helens (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

10. Apple Macintosh (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

11. Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

12. Gettysburg Address (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

13. Douglas Adams (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

14. I Want to Hold Your Hand (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixel

15. Epaminondas (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

16. Shielded Metal Arc Welding (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

17. Yagan (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

18. Political Integration of India (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixel

19. James T. Aubrey, Jr. (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixel

20. Sheffield (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixel

21. Raney Nickel (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

22. History of Merit Badges (Boy Scouts of America) (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

23. Panama Canal (*), @006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

24. Flag of Mexico (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

25. Médecins Sans Frontières (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

26. History of Portugal (1777-1834) (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

27. Gubernatorial Election, 2004, (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

28. Edward Teller (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixel

Wilson Pickett 1-10

 

Wilson Pickett 1-10, 2006, HTML, 460 x 460 pixels each

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

1. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
2. I'm A Midnight Mover
3. Funky Broadway
4. She's Lookin' Good
5. Sugar Sugar
6. 634-5789
7. Land of 1000 Dances
8. Engine Number 9
9. A Man and a Half
10. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)

What do I need to say about this series? It's about Wilson Pickett, March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006. It's about groovin' and movin'. I defy you to listen to Land of 1000 Dances and not sing along. I challenge you to listen to Funky Broadway and not move your feet. I doubt you can listen to his version of the bubble gum song Sugar Sugar and not feel full of the sweetest love for someone. You can't listen to Engine Number 9 and not feel... nasty. 634-5789 will make you take your hand off the wheel and clap your hands.

I left Mustang Sally off the list. And I stopped at ten. But there's much more there in the songbook. These drawings are just a l'il thang. Better to just listen to Wilson.

Untitled 1-10

 

Untitled 1-10, 2006, HTML, 505 x 650 pixels each

Occidental 1-10

 

Occidental 1-10, 2006 (Jan. 1-10), HTML, 260 x 798 pixels each

I continue to look for and find ways that these small, flat, slick, saturated, light-filled, hard-edged, site-specific HTML images have some connection to the things I'm doing on canvas and paper.

For the past year I have been making paintings that consist of four canvases, and sets of drawings that consist of five pieces. The reason behind four and five is another story, mostly intuitive, something about balance. In these works, which consist of multiple pieces, I am interested in the interrelationships of one piece to another, and of all of the pieces to the whole. Another way of saying this is that I am interested in visual narrative, though it's not necessarily a linear kind of narrative, it's more like hopscotch.

I wanted to kick off the new year by forcing the issue a bit- make some HTML drawings here that would push ahead something in the paintings. And I wanted to be forced to make variety, four times a day, over at least ten days. The challenge with this HTML work is to find something new to do; it's not that easy, actually. Not difficult in that it's hard, but difficult in that there's not a lot of leeway inside this medium.

There are moments in some of these ten sets of drawings when the four pieces become something much more together than they ever would individually. Sometimes the simplicity of the HTML drawings is enhanced by the complexity of putting one thing beside another. I can never make them be much more than what they are: small, flat, slick, saturated, light-filled, hard-edged, and site-specific. The thing for a visual artist to do is to make visual things. It's only by making and making that I can eventually make something that will stick. This day by day practice is about making something sticky, whether here or someone else.

Untitled Long Set 1-27 (Bureaus, Cabinets, Speakers & Falls)

 

Untitled Long Set 1-27 (Bureaus, Cabinets, Speakers & Falls), 2005, HTML, dimensions varied

Not only are these sculptural, but they also bring furniture to mind. I'm thinking bureaus, cabinets, speakers. The faces and verticality of these object-like images brought other things to mind, and I started thinking of long waterfalls over rock faces. They're about height and sections, and how the eye looks and moves from top to bottom, falling and rising. And let me remind the viewer: these are in HTML, so pretty stiff, crude, and blocky. Other than that... I could say more, but prefer to let your eyes do the talking. View the full-sized HTML version.

Small Set 1-13 (Bars, Hooks, Notches, Strands)

 

Small Set 1-13 (Bars, Hooks, Notches, Strands), 2005, HTML, dimensions varied

This little set started quite simply. I wanted to draw. I decided to use a long straight line with a knob at each end. Call it a hook or a notch. I just wanted to see how to use a line with a hook at each end, each using a common standard of measurement, to make a drawing. Some of these are quite figurative. Some of these I can't help but see as long-limbed muscular bodies, wigged heads, ostriches. Whatever. Others are simpler, more like fields; in these the color and images aren't a real stretch. Sometimes a series of drawings is just about making a drawing each day, trying to push ahead a bit, and not necessarily about ploughing new ground. View the full-sized HTML version.

Untitled (Blue & Green) 1-18

 

Untitled (Blue & Green) 1-18, 2005, HTML, 300 x 260 pixels each

Yet Five More Past Picks

 

These are five out of a thirty sort of "Best of" from the past nearly two years of daily HTML drawings.

 

Zen Arcade, Side 1, November 30, 2004, HTML, 594 x 575 pixels

 

 

 

The Sleeping Spinner, December 15, 2004, HTML 549 x 489 pixels

 

 

 

Untitled, 2005, HTML, 500 x 460 pixels	Untitled, 2005, HTML, 500 x 460 pixels

From Untitled 1-21, January 09 & 15, 2005, HTML, 500 x 460 pixels each

 

 

 

Another Five Past Picks

 

These are five out of a thirty sort of &uot;Best of" from the past nearly two years of daily HTML drawings.

 

heave, huff (mouthsounds), July 06, 2004, HTML, 418 x 270 pixels each

 

 

 

 

 

 

(L) Er Verschwand (für mein Vater auf seinem Geburtstag), (M) Ihr Verblasst, (R) Sie Vermeidet, October 08 & 26 & 30, 2004, HTML, 198 x 162 pixels

Five More Pasts Picks

 

These are five out of a thirty sort of "Best of" from the past nearly two years of daily HTML drawings.

 

From Dasarâjadharma: Ten Principles of Good Governance
(L) 7: Akskodha - Absence of anger
(R) 10: Avirodha - Absence of obstruction
March 1 & 4, 2005, HTML, 234 x 198 pixels

 

 

 

 

dukka, March 24, 2004, HTML, 380 x 340 pixels

 

 

 

 

The Last Light at the End of the Branch, April 25, 2004, HTML, 240 x 475 pixels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Edges (Gold) VI, June 03, 2004, HTML , 396 x 396 pixels

Top Ten, or so

 

A couple of weeks ago, when talking with George Lawson about my August break from making and posting HTML drawings here, he suggested that I choose ten drawings as an overview of the past three years or so to kick off a return to drawing on September 1. I thought that was a good idea, and he wondered if I could really only narrow a selection down to a top ten. Sure I thought, I can do that. No problem.

Well, it has been a problem. And I don't mean that the problem is that there is too much wonderfulness from which to choose. I'm feeling the opposite- as I look back I'm not seeing as many successful drawings as I thought I'd find.

First, I decided to only choose from drawings posted on this weblog, Look,See, and not bother going back through the old weblog, A Place to Work, Nothing Fancy, just to lessen my work load. Had I tried to pull from the two years or whatever drawings there it would've been too much to take on.

As I looked through drawings month by month back to October 2003 I began to feel a little depressed, a little unhappy, a little impatient, because I found there were very few drawings that felt alive to me, that overcame the awkwardness of the locked-in, hard-edged grid, the even, monotonous brilliance of hexadecimal color and the monitor, and the complete absence of the hand. I have felt this before, and then fought my way through that feeling by doing more drawings and finding new little twists or approaches to a subject. Maybe that will happen again in the future. I have really mixed feelings about this, and I'm not sure where I stand right now. Obviously, I didn't figure anything out during August. And certainly, this confession is not a smooth career move, as if that was ever in question, anyway. But that's the nature of the weblog, and that's been the nature of this project for me, too.

I realized there were two criteria I used for my selection- did it work as a standalone drawing, and did it lead somewhere? In particular, has the drawing been useful for me in work outside the HTML medium? There are aspects of these drawings I've chosen that I'm using in paintings and drawings. I'm glad for that.

Currently I have a list of about thirty drawings. I can't reduce it to ten. And there were days when I made two drawings, so in those few cases when I picked a day I included both drawings. There is one incidence of four drawings on one day. I also cheated a bit and pulled two drawings from a series and counted them as one.

Over the next few days I'll post these drawings. But just for today I'm only going to post one drawing which is now close to two years old and which I think is my absolute favorite.

Tuolumne, November 17, 2003, HTML, 400 x 380 pixels

Empyre Series 1-28

 

I finally compiled all twenty eight drawings in the empyre series made in June, 2005 during the empyre mailing list panel.

The Great Escape

 

 

I was flipping around on TV the other night and The Great Escape was on. I first saw this movie on TV when I was ten or twelve. It's about POWs in Germany during WWII, mostly British and American, and the huge escape through tunnels that they attempt.

At that time I was really impressed with Steve McQueen's cooler and motorcyle scenes. In the cooler he has has a ball and glove, and sits on the floor throwing and bouncing the ball off the opposite wall, playing catch with himself to keep himself occupied during period of isolation as punishement for escape attempts. After the final escape of a couple hundred POWs the film follows several characters attempts to get out of Germany, and McQueen's final attempt is on motorcycle through fields and jumping fences once he is detected by German soldiers; it's sort of a typical rugged individualist scene, but kind of thrilling, and McQueen stays vulernable through it, ending in his recapture.

The thing that struck me when watching the film again recently were that there four American actors: McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and James Ganer. I don't know if in 1963 each of these actors were the big name that they are now, but it's interesting to see them in a single film even if they are rarely, if ever, in the same scenes. Another film that is interesting to see as an ensemble piece of big names (and it's a good film besides that quality) is Cool Hand Luke (1967), with Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton, Wayne Rogers, Ralph White, and several other faces one by now easily recognizes.

This set of four drawings is about the four characters played by McQueen, Bronson, Coburn, and Garner. I decided not to extend the series to other actors; for example, other strong characters played by Richard Attenborough and Donald Pleasance. This set is just about how these four characters stand out.

Ithaca Series 1-12

 

 

Ithaca Series 1-12, 2005, HTML, dimensions variable

Today in Iraq 1-13

 

 

Today, in Iraq 1-13, 2005, HTML, dimensions variable

 

Untitled 1-12

 

 

Untitled 1-12, 2005, HTML, 464 x 464 pixels each

 

I started these drawings with the idea of trying to making a medium-sized image with the fewest table cells possible. All but one of these drawings have five rows and five columns, or twenty five cells over all. The one exception is seven by seven; I can't remember why I made this exception.

The Infinite Line 1-10

 

 

The Infinite Line 1-10, 2005, HTML, dimensions variable

 

The Infinite Line: Re-making Art After Modernism, (2004) is a book by Briony Fer, a reader in history of art at University College London. Each drawing is named after one of ten chapters in the book, in order:

1. Picture
2. Series
3. Infinity
4. Diagram
5. Tableau
6. Encounter
7. Studio
8. List
9. Mobility
10. Utopia

From the Yale Press site:

A fresh perspective on some important twentieth-century art

This landmark book offers a radical reinterpretation of the innovative art of the late 1950s and 1960s. Examining the work of major artists of the period--including Mark Rothko, Piero Manzoni, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, Blinky Palermo, and Louise Bourgeois--Briony Fer focuses on the overriding tendency toward repetition and seriality that occurred at the moment of modernism’s decline, gained ground in its aftermath, and continues to shape much of the art seen today.

Although seriality is mainly associated with American artists and with Minimalism, Fer broadens our understanding of it, looking at Minimalist seriality as one crucially important strategy among several. She argues that repetition becomes generative of new modes and habits of making and looking; at stake is how we think about the artwork in relation to both temporality and subjectivity. Paying close attention to specific artworks, this timely critical reassessment offers a fresh perspective on a wide range of familiar and less familiar art.

Willie 1-15

 

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, when thinking about what to do next, I settled on the idea that I wanted to do something figurative without actually doing the figure. Three squares stacked vertically seems pretty figurative, and so the next question of course had to do with, "who are these figures and what are they doing?"

Lists are extremely helpful for meeting my daily goal of a posting a drawing. I often go with a theme-based lists, such as 16 Arhats, Dasarâjadharma. Thirteen Records, or Trennung 1-24. I'm also attracted to the use of language, word play, and alliteration, though on review this isn't something that finally shows up as much as I thought it does. A couple of examples are mouthsounds 1-30 and a kind of name association called Smokey Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Jackie Wilson, Mookie Wilson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) .

It's baseball season, of course, and in the kitchen I was listening to the season opener on the radio, SF at LA. Willie Mays is my idol, and I could think of five more players named Willie off the top of my head: McCovey, McGee, Stargell, Rudolph, Wilson. I searched for more players named Willie. It wasn't that hard, butI stopped at fifteen. Thus a series of drawings about baseball players named Willie.

The first couple of days I called the series The Willies, but of course "the willies" means to be spooked, and since most of these players are African American there was the possiblity of a misunderstanding of my intention and other things I don't want to get involved in, so I'm just calling this series Willie 1-15.

Being figurative and baseball-related there's an attempt to get movement, outdoors, light, some baseball imagery, some feeling of figure. I tried to stay from team colors, but I have to confess I didn't do that completely. Green kept showing up; gosh, I wonder why? Some of the figures seem more day game-like, some more night game-like. Other than that, nothing too radical here: no steroids, no spitballs, no corked bats.

By the way, series of drawings back to January 2004 are compiled on a single page, and series earlier than that are compiled in a list at the old weblog. This reminds me that I need to copy those compilations from the old place over to this current place.