approximately 7"x7"; ink on paper.
This is the eighth piece in my 70-part "David's Book" project, also known as "The Blue Book" project. Although it's the eighth piece in the series, it's only the second to have been completed to satisfaction. This may seem odd, but I fell into a trap early on during the initial stages of this project, I procrastinated. I really need to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. Since all of these pieces are birthed from my mind in a very spontaneous way, I can easily lose the thread or the spirit of an idea if I let it linger in the ether. I sometimes enjoy likening it to tracking a beast. You must stay on it's trail, you can't let yourself be distracted. But it's not all about keeping an idea fresh and alive, more often than not, it all boils down to time. It takes me a while before I complete one of these works. And I don't necessarily mean feeling out the picture in my mind, that comes easily enough, the actual work of putting pen to paper is incredibly time-consuming. Because I work with ink, I have to be incredibly careful not to smear or smudge any of the work that's already been laid down. Moreover, keeping a focused mind and a controlled hand really makes for slow work. I haven't yet found a way to maintain a hard edge on my line work, without using extreme pressure on the pen. After some time, my hand gets really cramped and strained. So working on my art only comes in spurts. The mind is willing, but the body is weak... as they say.
The first "completed" piece isn't something I'm particularly proud of on an... I was going to say emotional level, but that's not quite right. I just wasn't able to keep on "track". I lost the scent, and yet managed to finish my work. In its way, it seems perverted to me. It's malformed. A convergence of two ideas from two different perspectives. I have the idea in mind now, and it's nothing like what's been commited to paper.
This second one however, is much more on the mark. That's probably due to the fact that it's not entirely an original idea. I mean, it is... it's all mine. But I mean to say that the inspiration wasn't wholly mine. It was heavily inspired by a drawing done by J.R.R. Tolkien. Funny enough, even though it was heavily inspired by that work, the two have almost nothing in common visually. I wish I could show you the drawing I'm speaking of, but I don't know where it is. I don't even know, for sure, where I saw it. I had figured since I only own one Tolkien work, the leather-bound edition of The Lord Of The Rings, it must've been from there. But I looked, and couldn't find anything. So I figured I must've seen it online, but I haven't been able to find it there either. I'm almost sure now, that I saw it in person. At a Barnes & Noble, while I was checking out the leather-bound edition of Tolkien's The Hobbit. Since it's been years since I saw it, my memory of it might be totally off. But what I do remember is that is depicted a pastoral landscape, complete with trees, mountains and I believe cloud. Tolkien's work is very appealing to me because of his use of line. It's very simplistic. Very stark. In a vein with my own style. Which is probably why it struck me so. More than just the landscape itself, Tolkien used this little device to set his work apart. He placed an invisible vertical line in the center of the piece, to act as a point of symmetry, so that the right side of the picture was nearly identical to the left... and all things converged to a central source.
That idea of "centeredness", "source", "nature", "landscape" and "symmetry" got my mind working. I thought I'd make a play on his most famous work, The Lord Of The Rings, visually. I wanted to create rings of setting and landscape. Of course, originating from the center... from a source. I knew everything would expand from the center. Literally everything would. Because I didn't want to create a strictly terrestrial view. I wanted a view of the universe as a whole. I wanted water, air, heaven, space and spirit. In a way, I imagined symbolizing "The Big Bang"... or more than that, the idea of creation. Of life.
Working with circles also lended the idea of creating a mandala. Which is why I decided to frame the piece with the four stages of life, symbolized as the rising, shining, setting and negative Sun. The rising in the East (at the right), the shining in the South (at the bottom), the setting in the West (at the left) and the dark in the North (at the top). In this context, the piece as a whole came together. The Mandala should be used to gain focus and clarity, to center ones self with the world at large, both internal and external. I had all these ideas in mind. All of which are hard to marry to one another... but I think it came together rather well. As well as it could, at the time. I know I can improve upon this idea and the symbols within the piece. There wasn't enough space to work in everything I wanted. But it acts as a symbol should... the meat of the idea is there. For now, it's all about the broad strokes. I can always refine later. Doing so would make it more personal, and so I imagine that's why I'm fine with making this public. The idea is everyone's. The universe not mine, nor yours... but ours.
DS333, centered.
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