Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.these
—Elie Wiesel
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I recently finished this group of small pieces for the upcoming Little Gems show at the West End Gallery in Corning. Called Small Remembrances, they are all tiny paintings, coming in at only 1 1/2″ by 2 1/2″ in size. Like many of the tiny pieces I have done over the years tend to remind me of small snippets of memory. I tend to think of memory as tiny bits and pieces, individual images and bits of film that tell small stories of themselves before fitting into any sort of larger continuum.
When I assembled these Small Remembrance pieces together as a group I was struck by their cohesion and relationship to one another. The quote above from Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winning author, came to mind. This past Wednesday had been International Holocaust Remembrance Day and his always eloquent words were already on my mind.
There’s a darkness, a somberness, in these small pieces that fits here. While we might prefer that it be so, memory is not confined to the bright and happy nor should it be. Each memory, regardless of its size, by its very nature has an importance, an effect. Memory of our past shapes our future.
So while these may be tiny and may be insignificant in many ways, they have a purpose and a meaning that goes beyond size.
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover through the detours of art those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
Another Thanksgiving and it might seem that it would be hard to find much to be thankful for in this turbulent world with its endless cornucopia of anger, hatred, intolerance, injustice and inequality set out for our consumption each day. With a diet of so many negatives it would be easy to forget that one simple thing that truly feeds and sustains us– gratitude.
I’ve been taking a stained glass class for a few weeks now, trying to shake up my routine and thought process a bit. In going over my work there with the instructor who is teaching me on a one-to-one basis, I try to explain that while I am seeking to learn proper technique I am not shooting for perfection. I am looking for expression and things like rhythm and harmony. It made me think of the painting above , Seeking Imperfection, which was the title piece for my second show at the Principle Gallery back in 2001. I am re-running a post from a few years back that better explains my search for the not-perfect aspects of our world.
There’s nothing I’m afraid of like scared people.
You can’t think a story — you can’t think, “I shall do a story to improve mankind.” It’s nonsense! All the great stories, all the really worthwhile plays, are emotional experiences. If you have to ask yourself whether you love a girl, or whether you love a boy, forget it — you don’t! A story is the same way — you either feel a story and need to write it, or you’d better not write it.
Redtree Times 