WORLD AS COLLAGE – DAY 7

 

THE SHORT TAKE:
Hello All and welcome back to my studio! Another late night posting – once again the day was full!

In the studio – collage work and some sunshine – I put finishing touches on the newest collage and scanned four finished ones for later postings.

So here again are a few new images for your viewing pleasure; World as Collage Day 7 – Recto & Verso and a new pair of ancillary, digitally manipulated images too!

 

 

 

 

No video today, but I’m happy to share some music. Let’s veer away from raging Gypsy punk music and enjoy something a bit more mellow HERE: Szirtes Edina Mókus, a fantastic Hungarian musician. She’s recording this performance of Akkor, by the beloved poet József Attila at the Open Workshop (Nyitott Műhely) where my 2018 solo exibition PRESENT CONTINUOUS / FOLYAMATOS JELEN took place.

 

THE LONG READ:
The subject of digitally manipulated work and its validity, value and attraction was touched on in an interesting back and forth with Janet, in response to the Day 6 posting. She asserted that the presence of the hand was of the greatest importance in her appreciation of a piece of artwork. The digital images were for her, lacking. My reply was: Yes, I think with my hands… but I see with my eye! Give me an image, and I’ll look – in any and every way possible. Personally I’ve never had a problem with looking on a screen (we were the first TV generation after all) although having said that, I’ll agree that being in the living presence of a piece of work is nonpareil!!

Many years ago, for example, I saw a fantastic exhibition of Kazimir Malevich at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Two things are fixed in my mind. Many of the paintings were installed up in the corners of the exhibition rooms, precisely as icons were traditionally hung in the home. The other remarkable thing, however, was to see the subtle glowing surfaces of Malevich’s white on white paintings, or yellow on white paintings. In reproductions they read flat, conveying something quite conceptual. In life, though, I could see how Malevich had applied the paint, somehow layering the yellow on top of the white in delicate dabs, so that it shimmered. They became, like the icon-like positioning, deeply spiritual works! There was one large, trapezoidal yellow oil painting that I will never forget titled Yellow Plane in Dissolution (1917-1918). It was installed so that one could see it from a great distance, across a large hall and through a wide doorway. From far away the canvas exuded such a god-like radiance that it took my breath away! Of course, there is none of that at all in this reproduction, but you can try to imagine. So yes, in-person viewing brings us close, so close to artistic intent.

But back to my digital pieces, I have to say that the photo editor I use to make these images allows for a tremendous amount of freedom to play with the image… and so I find this entirely visual process a lot of fun, a game! I don’t usually think of my work in terms of fun, but in this case, the process is perfect play!

Meanwhile, things continue spinning more and more out of control in the world, and it takes a great deal of effort to move through the day with balance and appreciation. As I wrote yesterday, work is strangely, intensely interwoven with war. But there are moments, when the mystery of form, color, texture and the interplay of all those elements bring one to a place of Silence.

 

– Diane Sophrin
  Montpelier, Vermont
  March 4, 2022