Encouraging a Lover in Every Possible Way

 

 

 

 

 

The text in this work is a poem by Carla Nappi from Uninvited: Talking Back to Plato, by Carrie Jenkins and Carla Nappi. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. 2020. These drawings are my contribution to The Uninvited Project, a collection of artworks curated by the authors, Carrie Jenkins and Carla Nappi, made in response to the book. Visit the Uninvited Project site for more information and great work by a variety of other artists. https://www.uninvitedproject.com/.

 

Staged

More of these things: drawing motivated by scene descriptions in early modern plays. These come from The Betrothal, by Maurice Maeterlinck: something about a curtain, a door with a "formidable lock," and caverns leading to a miser's den. These pages are part of a work in progress. Will I ever include text from these plays? I'm not sure about that yet.

Directives

 

 Sketchbook with text from August Strindberg. Drawings distracted observations from our front porch.
 

Omaha Bodies, Rub the Lamp

The Wayback Machine Is Hollow

Thick Skin for Thin Crowds

Soft Rock for Wood

Handmade Mistakes

Open Mic Closed Mic

I have my reasons

Plate armor haiku

The Desert World

passages from The Desert World.

The text is an appropriation of two passages from Pierre Jean Jouve’s novel The Desert World. Translated from French by Lydia Davis, Northwestern University Press, 1996.

The image in the top-left panel is based on my memory of a shot appearing in the 2005 film Into Great Silence.

Your Place

Centric

Centric

I think it's pretty obvious that a stylus traveling through the groove of an LP is analogous to some sort of mythic pilgrim’s wanderings--stumbling through labyrinths, over mandalas, or whatever. As with any myth, the end seems to be in view from the very start. Some stories have been told so many times that it’s hard to find adventure in the venture; hard to take it (and make it) personally.  In spite of that, I have a helpless attraction to these kinds of narratives. I also have an unconditional affection for the material junk of recorded music and a compulsion for reflecting on perception via spatial orientation. I drew these pages hoping my loves and compulsions would push me through trap doors, over walls carved in relief, through scale shifts, and through loose (and that might simply mean poorly-fitting) associations. All this, in order to find a few personal footholds in an otherwise smoothly worn subject.

Download a PDF

Drawn for a song

If I park in the driveway there'll be space in the garage

Clear out a closet or two to make room for your mirage

 

Centric Redux

I spent this past autumn renovating the pages of a booklet I made last year, Centric. This is the last page of the book.  Will post more, or a PDF of the whole thing, sooner or later.

thing language

This is related to my last post, back in July; let me put those sentiments another way, using words belonging to someone else:

Don't touch that dial

***

A record? A log? One more for the fire? One more little overwrought commitment to posterity never hurt anybody, right?

Pitch White