Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Page

Richard Serra, September




Intellectually, I know that there's nothing new under the sun. But the scope of visual influences astonishes me. My last post image bears a too-canny resemblance to a photo in April's issue of  ARTnews, featuring Richard Serra's drawing retrospective exhibit at the Met in New York.


When I saw the magazine last month, I saved the article and put it aside. In it the writer detailed Serra's choice of media...ink, charcoal, paint stick...which are materials that I use quite often. Obviously, the visuals imprinted my brain.
Alas, Alack!!

Granted, I thought I was sourcing from my unconscious when I stepped up to my page. I guess in a way, I was. But today, when I sat down at my studio table, it was clear: Richard Serra's drawings spoke to me in a visceral and compelling way. He is quoted as saying that drawing is nothing "less than a language and a way of seeing and thinking." I understood his language.

1 comments:

Nanci Hersh said...

There is absolutely a collective unconscious, but like the words that we speak, and our own signature, your "trip" to the page is unique, as if your drawing.

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