WALK #37

Today I noticed grapevines' shadows, and was taken by their imagery. If I sectioned them into squares/rectangles, I could see pattern paintings and pattern drawings. In turn, that reminded me of certain artists who work with randomness to create their works. The patterns left by the shadows are "random"ly-made in the sense that they depend on forces not controlled by other elements—in this case they are based on nature, light, the sun's position, the shape of elements created for other reasons (i.e. vineyards) than to make shadow patterns, and so on. I then was reminded of one of my favorite artists, Theresa Chong, whose "random" influence for certain works included gravity. Once, she made a painting by using a wet-on-wet method whereby the background was a wet all-black field. Then she placed a row of white drops of paint on one edge. Then she stood the painting up so that the white drops would fall down in rows against the black background. In other words, "random" gravity was her collaborator on the work. As the white paint drops fell, they would elongate and sometimes fracture in unexpected ways. What was interesting is that the final effect could evoke Asian scroll writing as well as music (she is a cellist as well). She renamed one of the paintings in this series "Black Lightning" (3rd and 4th images) because it ended up being the cover image for my first book, BLACK LIGHTNING (1998). It's interesting how the mind, too, meanders during walks. Such lovely memories and thoughts were conjured up by today's walk—I'm grateful.

Recognition

Nature offers patterns

for your

recognition

if you choose

to see

them