Look, See

5. Don't Know How

Untitled, February 1982

Untitled, February 1982, pencil and colored pencil on drafting paper, 15 x 20"

4. Don't Know How

Ya call this art?

Ya call this art? Enamel on cotton over wood stretcher, about 12 x 12", October 1986.

3. Don't Know How

Drawing: Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1978

This drawing is dated May-June 1978, and is titled "Santa Fe, New Mexico" (look at the top right of the burnt orange area; the title and date are written in pencil using a drafter's template). It's around 14" square, with pencil, colored pencil, and ink stamp on paper. This is actually a collage of separate drawings. The left and right heavily drawn areas used to be a separate single drawing that was torn vertically and glued on another piece of paper; see how the traced wrench on the right continues off the right side and re-enters on the left side. You can see in the central white area two seams where torn paper is glued.

The graphite drawing was mostly drawn in May, as I recall; at the end of the month I was gone for two weeks driving to Louisiana and back, which included going through Santa Fe and seeing a friend. I loved the drive through New Mexico. After returning I used the previous drawing, torn and reassembled onto another piece of paper, and drew the pyramid in th desert, a pretty obvious landscape.

I'm not sure how much can be deciphered from the rest of the imagery that is specific to Santa Fe; I think there is a feeling in this jumble of images of a time, place, and experience, of many things seen and remembered. I think it's a view past up-close details swinging open like doors to show a deeper, open, empty space filled with bright sunlight. I feel a sense of splitting open a cluttered collection of tangled stuff to get to something peaceful, quiet, light-filled. I think specifically that this drawing came as a reaction to being busy at the time personally and at school in contrast to two weeks of freedom on the road.

2. Don't Know How

Oakland Drawing, 1985

This is probably close to the final drawing I did for the Oakland painting posted last week; conte crayon and gouache, about 8 x 10".

Three Studies, 1985

Three 1985 drawings for the Oakland painting I posted last week; these are each in the 15 x 20" range:

1. Don't Know How

Untitled 1-5

Untitled 5

Untitled 4