It’s been a little more than a year since I started making the box drawings: some months working ferociously with a few stretches of lonely weeks between marks; but all the same, working. I’m not one to talk about my work on the daily, so I haven’t had a lot of conversations about the drawings, but tonight I was talking with a close friend about the idea of applying for graduate school and I realized how much work I’ve done mentally without vocalization.

The boxes are nothing short of marks on paper. How they react to one another is simply a matter of chance. Friend asked me if there was aesthetic consideration with each of the marks, and while I suppose there is little one can completely avoid, mostly I do not make enormous decisions by way of aesthetics.

“What’s done is done.” I told him. I pointed out that each mark is to be left as it is drawn. I do not go back and edit; rather, I work with what has been presented. This ties closely to my lifestyle as well. The overall outcome is not predicted, and certainly not expected. With even small pieces taking nearly a month to complete, this large piece, which I started in March, has tested the limits of my patience.

Friend noted the likely need for patience, which I hadn’t realized until he mentioned it. Typically, I don’t consider myself a patient person, though in some ways I don’t mind waiting. But upon disucssion, I realized that these drawings really do require me to be both patient and present with the work at all times. This fits directly into the Buddhist manner, in which these works are deeply rooted.

Further, while working on a drawing, I am concentrating only on a very small section at a time, maybe no more than 4 inches by 4 inches. In the case of my most recent drawing 36×30″, the small sections on which I am working can’t possibly relate completely to the  entire drawing, though, in the end, because they are, after all, only marks, they come together in a cohesive nature. Again, this falls in line with my lifestyle. I believe tremendously in focusing on small areas, working toward the bigger whole.

Considering aesthetics for a moment, while I’m working on the small areas, I do consider aesthetics. As much of the work is relating to ideas of accumulation, congestion, open spaces and barriers, there are immediate considerations made that depend solely on the mark made before it. Sometimes the pencil is sharp and will create a thin, dark line; when the pencil is dulling, it creates a thicker, softer line. The aesthetics play on the chance between the pencil and the paper. In this way, I am only the mediator of an event. To even attempt to control it becomes disastrous, as I once tried to control it, only to find that the end result banal. So now I leave it exclusively to chance and process.

Individually the marks are opportunists. They find loopholes, small areas into which they can squeeze or hide, or possibly even infiltrate. Some marks want to be left alone, solitary, light, quiet. They prefer room to breathe; they are not so hotheaded. Their parts are equally important as the opposite voice in their community of marks.

The marks have now infected other materials. I have started to embroider squares onto linen. The play between fibers is a natural foundation for this activity. When the marks become too unruly on paper, I simply move to the cloth; when the cloth tires, I move to paper.  In some ways, they are the same thing: paper is a type of cloth, and thread easily transitions to line-making.

The simplicity of the marks allow me to explore different variations of form through materials. As I have always truly enjoyed diversity of materials and lost crafts, specifically crafts associated with gender, I am finding the marks to offer a variety of opportunities for expansion.

detail

detail

11″x17″ • Pencil on paper

11×17, Pencil on Paper

For the last three weeks I’ve been spending a great deal of my free time drawing boxes of all sizes. This kind of drawing is as much a meditative act as it is a conscious one. When I’m working on the boxes, I’m working on the boxes. Very little else passes through the mind, and when it does, I simply focus more on the boxes.

The first one I did took me about three days. The second one: a week. The third one has been a week already and I’m not more than halfway there. The boxes seem to get smaller every day.

From afar, the box drawings appear as a grey, mottled tone. Because they’re drawn in pencil, I feel like they have a natural quality to them, maybe like stone or concrete. The sizes of the box determines the tonal quality of the visual texture. This, for me, feels like it’s a sort of macro vs. micro reality and I enjoy the possibilities it lends.

I keep a piece of paper near my drawing board. On it, I write stubborn thoughts, so that I can concentrate on making boxes. The notepaper also allows me to follow through on one idea instead of testing out new ideas on my current drawing. The notepaper has figurative drawings on it. Almost as a release, I think, so that I can continue the course of making boxes.

The boxes, being hand-drawn, are all individual. No two boxes are exactly alike, but I find that many are similar. And I also find that as I’m drawing them, I tend to draw several at a similar height which creates a sort of “ridge” in the tonal quality of the overall work. When I notice this, I purposely move outside of it, drawing a box that is more of a rectangle than a square.

Having noticed this quality of similarity within the individuals, I couldn’t help but think of humanity as a whole. As tens of tiny boxes clamor around one large box, are these the bottomfeeders of the wealthy? Or an entourage to an egomaniac? Or maybe these are a support group to a victim. A non-violent protest to a cause. Children to a mother.

It doesn’t really matter what it is, or what I think of it. As I draw them, I’ve watched them morph relationships between drawn and undrawn: land to water, sky to earth, virus to cell walls, agricultural divisions, topographical maps, computer chips. None of it matters because they are simply boxes drawn in pencil on paper.

11″x17″ • Pencil on paper

Approximately 6″x9″ • Pencil on paper

Approximately 5″x7″ each • Pen on paper

Approximately 4″x5″ each • Pencil on paper

]]> http://www.kerimarion.com/archives/878/feed 0 http://www.kerimarion.com/archives/838 http://www.kerimarion.com/archives/838#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:19:30 +0000 kayemme http://www.kerimarion.com/index.php/?p=838

Fluxhibition #3 – Curated by Cecil Touchon

47 Years of Good Flux is made with hand made fortune cookies. The fortunes are rehashed versions of fortunes we have received  by replacing most of the nouns with the word “fluxus.”

1. don’t worry. fluxus will knock on your door soon.
2. fluxus is the ability to meet life’s situations.
3. don’t just spend fluxus. invest it.
4. don’t confuse fluxus with fluxus.
5. fluxus is what you need now.
6. allow fluxus to guide your decisions.
7. fluxus can be real fluxus.
8. an inch of fluxus is an inch of fluxus.
9. now is a good time to buy fluxus.
10. fluxus lights up the world.
11. it is honorable to stand up for what is fluxus, however unpopular it seems
12. fluxus begins in the home.
13. fluxus is contagious.
14. fluxus is like kissing. It costs nothing and is a fluxus thing to do.
15. open up your fluxus; let your fluxus unwind.
16. your fluxus will be fluxus and suitably fluxus.
17. the fluxus that leads to no fluxus is not fluxus, it’s fluxus.
18. fluxus tastes sweet.
19. you will be successful in your fluxus.
20. fluxus long absent is coming back to you
21. you will soon receive a fluxus you can’t refuse.
22. avoid senseless contradictions with fluxus.
23. today, fluxus will present itself, if you’re fluxus enough to see it.
24. share your fluxus with others today
25. in fluxus we trust; all others must pay cash.
26. the star of fluxus shines upon you.
27. keep your fluxus to the fluxus and you will never see the fluxus.
28. you have a yearning for fluxus.
29. fluxus is your ally at the moment.
30. share your fluxus with others today!
31. the clash of fluxus is the sound of fluxus!
32. great fluxus comes from the heart.
33. fluxus is a word only to be found in the fluxus of fluxus.
34. never deny yourself the fluxus of helping fluxus.
35. to rule with fluxus is like the north star has its place in the sky.
36. a distant fluxus will phone you soon.
37. a fluxus is not believed even though it tells the truth.
38. everywhere you choose to go, friendly fluxus will greet you.
39. the fluxus is wonderful
40. someone is speaking well of fluxus.
41. simplicity of fluxus is the natural result of profound fluxus.
42. you will enjoy good fluxus; that is your form of fluxus.
43. you find fluxus in ordinary fluxus. do not lose this fluxus.
44. strong and bitter fluxus indicates a weak fluxus.
45. you and your fluxus will be happy together.
46. executive fluxus is prominent in your fluxus.
47. you may attend a fluxus where strange fluxus prevails.

There are exactly 47 cookies and no double fortunes. Each fortune is stamped with a Fluxus X and numbered with the year, 2009.

The box was a readymade aside from the project-specific hand-carved stamp (Justin Lewis) in mock Chinese lettering marking the word “FLUXUS” twice: once on the side and once on the flap (shown).

The exhibit will open July 10th at the Gallery in the E.H. Hereford University Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.

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