BBBabe..if i could figure out how to paste a pic of the piece that is in the atlanta show i would do it. it is a mixed media piece resulting from september 11. the series is called SEPTEMBER JOURNAL and the piece is HATRED DEBRIS. it is one of 11 works in the series. the only way that i found to deal with that day was to put it into art. it was not my intention to do a body of work but once i started i just could not stop. i guess we all had to find our own way..that's just mine.
September Journal
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’ve been doing art for twenty five years so I know I must have been doing something artistic before September 11, 2001 but I don’t remember what. I could try to recall my ideas and intentions however life changed on September 11.
After that day art seemed frivolous and insignificant. I went to my studio frozen in disbelief. Everything around me looked unfamiliar and unnecessary. Art seemed non-existent.
In October I put a canvas on the wall, erased all sense of consciousness, loaded my hands with paint and let the explosion of my new reality splatter onto the canvas. LETTING GO. From that experience came a new awareness of what art and life is for me.
It’s not about painting, sculpting or drawing. Those are simply the vehicles I use to produce a visual reflection of my world.
ART IS WHERE I EXPRESS THAT WHICH I CANNOT CONTAIN.
text that accompanies the piece...
September Journal: Hatred Debris
I wanted wood, metal, hammer and nails. I couldn’t repair the damage or cure the hatred toward America. I had to place my grief somewhere outside of myself.
The framed colorful mountain scene on the left is a picture that was on the front page of our local newspaper on September 11, 2001: A beautiful scene of our innocent naïve country. Below it is a wishbone. Outside the frame are fragments of concrete, metal, wire and ash. The panel to the right is part of a painting that I had done pre September 11. Bringing art from pre to post seemed important. However it is covered in part by the first page of a new journal that ironically I began on September 11: thus the title of the series, September Journal.
Inside the larger frame on the right is a picture of a woman with her hand over her mouth. That’s what I remember doing and seeing all day and for days afterward. This has become a symbol of Sept 11 for me. In front of her is a Vatican stone hand holding an egg surrounded by a rusty metal cage. Covering that is a veil representing the veiled women of Afghanistan who until Sept 11 were invisible to many Americans and the world. Also representing our own veil hiding the truth of our vulnerability.
The wire cage attached to that frame holds the world suspended and covered in ash. The pieces of game board are part of the Life Of Hoyle: What happened to the rules according to Hoyle? Why do they hate America?
WELL, THAT'S IT....HOPE I DIDN'T TELL YOU MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW. :)AFL
