Monday, October 31, 2011

New Piece in the Works

"In the works" is a convenient multi-purpose phrase which encompasses anything and everything from "floating around somewhere in my brain like blobs of that stuff inside of a lava lamp" to "partly finished and coming along nicely."  In this case, I guess both of those descriptions apply to some degree.

I think about language a lot, because I teach kids who have language deficits, mostly in the areas of reading and writing.  They also have poor vocabularies, and generally don't express themselves well in any context.  And I was wondering what factors influence the development of the parts of the brain that process language, which led me to pondering the original development of language in early humans.  I've also been thinking about the word "palimpsest" lately, sparked by Robyn's recent post on Art Propelled; before that, I had read about the "The World is a Town" mail art project, based on the Novgorod Codex.  It occurred to me that there are parallels between my work and the concept of the palimpsest, since my pieces often involve applying layers and scraping them off, leaving traces of each previous layer beneath the next.

These were some of my lava blobs.  Eventually they began to bump into one another, combine, and take on a form, which at this point looks something like this:

Palimpsest: Language

It is the cover of a typing text book from 1938.  So far, it has been scratched, scraped, and painted; many types of writing, printing, and maps have been glued on, scraped off, and transferred.  This is the bottom part of the piece, and it still has a ways to go.  More progress will be posted as it comes.




13 comments:

  1. I am amazed by this beautiful work...your discussion of the importance of language and use of words ...I was a special ed teacher ... and I understand the importance of sharing the words as we create our pieces. Happy Halloween from another KY Woman! Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

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  2. I especially love the texture at the top and the word "writing". I am a sucker for text worked into mixed media. Happy creating!

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  3. Ooo yes! I have a soft spot for palimpsest. Love the area around the fish with the handwriting and cuneiform. Just a hint in case you are thinking of hiding that part under another layer :-) (Thanks for the mention, Sharmon)

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  4. Love it so far. I'm looking forward to seeing what you add - or delete. I like how the "cutting line" paper cuts across diagonally.

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  5. it's looking good so far Sharmon. Love the layering, makes me want to touch it.

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  6. I'm so liking the way your mental blobs are taking shape...like the reading and image mix!

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  7. am i the only one who had to look palimpsest up? lol. well, thanks for teaching me something new and can't wait to see the final product!

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  8. very interesting - I'm anxious to see this evolve

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  9. le langage de la peinture est universelle..beau!

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  10. The layering concept keeps coming into my mind lately- I love coming here and seeing the concept come alive!

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  11. Wow! Your art has inspired me again, I love the way you use grays and reds and text. Good to hear about your job too, very interesting.
    Have a great week, do you get home and make collages everyday?
    roxanne

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  12. Interesting bottom you've got there...
    I couldn't resist '-)

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