Homage to the Forgotten Ones

Diary Drawing no. 11

Early February greetings! I've been squirreled away in the studio working on this diary drawing project, which has also been the subject of my most recent posts. I am now up to no. 28 of the 36 I plan to make, so I'll share them in small groups over the next couple weeks. 

Diary Drawing no. 12

Just to recap, these drawings are a kind of homage to the ordinary folks, countless generations of them, whose lives are lived in the richness of days punctuated by highs and lows, births and deaths, milestones large and small....just like ours. Over time and over the course of a deepening history, these lives become anonymous....forgotten. And yet, each one of us lives and breathes because of them, we carry their DNA and our lives are built on the experiences and memory of those who came before.

Diary Drawing no. 13

These anonymous diary drawings pay homage to those ordinary folks, living out their lives across the globe....countless generations of them. These are the "what if" diary pages of the people who have come before.....creating a trace where one doesn't exist.

Diary Drawing no. 14

This theme is not a new one for me, but one that has always been close to my heart. This notion of remembering and forgetting, as well the layering of history and the ephemeral nature of experience runs through all my work. A few recent additions to my bookshelves, which I'll share below, speak to these ideas in different ways.  Personal and collective history, the sense of place and a kind of grounding...the bittersweet nature of a life lived....these are things which unite us all.

Diary Drawing no. 15

Still reading Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors....fascinating!

Just started The Shepherd's Life....but was immediately immersed....beautifully written.

War & Turpentine is one of those books that is hard to finish...and I did reluctantly. It has been favorably compared with W. G. Sebald, one of my favorite authors. While I can see the connection,  this one is different. I wouldn't say it is truly a novel....more of a memoir and a memoir within a memoir. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful quote from James Rebanks taken from The Shepherd's Life:

"My grandfather was, quite simply, one of the great forgotten silent majority of people who live, work, love, and die without leaving much written trace that they were ever here. He was, and we his descendants remain, essentially nobodies as far as anyone else is concerned. But that's the point. Landscapes like ours were created by and survive through the efforts of nobodies."

That sentiment is the same one that underpins this these diary pages. Although they are a product of my own creation, they are a simple, quite homage and an appreciation for those who have gone before....the nobodies.

The Diary Drawings: Insights and Musings

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no. 4

Mid-January greetings! I'm reporting in on progress with the the diary drawing series I have begun for an exhibition next month. In my last post, I talked about the idea for the series and the fact that history is built upon what comes before us....the lives of ordinary folks, living out their days in many of the same ways that we do. Over time, we all become anonymous. That may sound like a rather melancholy thought, but I find it compelling, nonetheless. Our lives count for something, our actions and our days are important links in the ongoing chain of human civilization. Our lives have meaning, even if they seem to disappear into history.

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no. 5

So, these individual drawings, based on "anonymous diary pages", are not about any particular diary page from any particular individual, but are instead a way to talk about the universality of human experience....perhaps. Not what was specific to this or that person on this or that day, but the arc of it all...the way we seek love and security, the way each of us must deal with our basic needs in vastly differing circumstances, the way we struggle with our trials, our mistakes both large and small, and the many ways we find to communicate with those different from us. All of it. 

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no.6

And so, while I had this large arc of human experience in mind, I still thought it might be helpful to look at the content of some actual published diaries from ordinary folks from throughout history. While fascinating, this was not a good idea for me. My best work comes from the inside out, intuitively, and this effort took me to a place of making work from the outside in. I was quite aware that the drawings attempted after having read a few diary entries in one of the books I checked out from the library were more stilted and I knew that I had moved into the realm of illustration. Now, illustration if a wonderful thing, but I saw the life sapping out of the work as the drawing I was working on became more strained and predictable.

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no.7

It happened with no. 5 above....I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is the loss of carefree abandon and randomness. I want to suggest connections, but not be descriptive, if that makes sense. I also like things to feel odd, unpredictable...and kind of strange. When no.6 was started down the path of predictability, I tore out the corner and inserted that sewn patch. I am happier when the work is a bit rough, as if perhaps you have to look twice to make sure what you are seeing. Often times, when we see what we expect to see, that is, when everything is predictable and each thing is where you expect it....well, there's nothing interesting to see. We lose the hunger for nuance. 

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no.8

And so, the stitches are a bit clumsy, things are attached in odd ways and compositions are a bit quirky. I am a maker and these drawings bear the trace of the hand, my hand and in a sense, are the pages of my own diary. Maybe they are your diary pages as well. The drawings are filled with symbols and untold stories....I invite you to create your own.

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no.9

 I've completed ten pieces at this point and I think my goal is to finish 36. They'll hang together in a grid....at 8" x 6" apiece, it will take a lot of them to have the kind of presence I want. But, I love making them....watching them emerge, listening to the echoes of unknown voices lost to history.

Anonymous: The Diary Drawings no.10

As my time has been spent solely on these drawings, I feel as though I am neglecting my Etsy shop, but there is plenty of work there awaiting a good home. Hope you take some time to see what's there that speaks to you! Until next time....enjoy the rest of your week.

Anonymous: The Diary Pages

Diary Page no.1

I have a longtime interest in history and in the trace we leave behind, as individuals and as cultures. This exploration if really at the heart of the work that I make in the studio. The quiet intimacy of the details of a life lived out day by day is reflected in the scale of my work. The pieces are meant be seen one-on-one, that is, not from across the room like a large painting, but like one would look at the page of a book...or perhaps...the page of an anonymous diary. 

I've been invited to participate in a show of a select group of women artists here in South Dakota at the South Dakota Art Museum and I'm excited about this new series of "diary pages" I've begun working on. Much of what we know about how people lived in different times and place comes from personal narratives in the form of diaries. The broad sweep of culture is echoed day-by-day in the lives of each one of us, whether we keep a record of it or not. 

Diary Page no.2

The diary page seemed a perfect format to bring together my interests and my joy in making works on paper. Each page is made with two sheets of 8" x 6" Japanese paper. The backing sheet contains the "writing", that is, drawing that echoes the pattern of words on a page. The top sheet is the "drawing" that brings the written word to life, possibly evoking a day, an event...or a moment in time. 

The process of making the anonymous written diary page is very meditative, as I imagine the person who might have written the "words." Afterwards, the page that is the drawing flows naturally and somehow echoes the writing both visually and metaphorically. After the drawing page is dipped in beeswax, it is attached to the written page with tiny stitches in the corners, but also through sewing, beads, buttons, sewn on collaged drawings and other bits. 

Diary Page no.3

These "diary pages" are perhaps filled with the imaginary record of births and deaths, festivals and special occasions that mark time and allow us to look back at the fulness of our days. Yet, while these pieces are filled with words and language, my sense is that they are filled with longing.....for lost days, loves found and then forgotten, for the ability to stop time and to hold on forever to everything we hold dear. 

December 13, 2016

Speaking of marking time, I've just posted a random assortment of some daily drawings in my Etsy shop. I think you can get the sense of how the daily drawings from my own life inform the drawings in the diary pages. Below on the drawing from January 9th...those acorn-like seed forms showed up later that same day on diary page no. 2.

December 16, 2016

January 9, 2017

I don't have the title yet for the series of diary pages, but it will come to me in due time and I will know it when it arrives, I'm quite sure. For now, they will just be numbered as I make them. I plan to have over 40 finished for the show and hang them together in a grid. With their small size, it will take a lot of these pages to hold together on a large gallery wall in the museum. Though each one is delicate, I hope that together they will have enough presence to beckon the viewer from afar.

Hope your year has started off well. Except for the cold that has turned into a sinus infection (modern medicine now at work), my year has started off on a positive note. Cheers!