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ARTIST'S
STATEMENT:
Geometria
del aire de Santa Fe
Geometry of the air of Santa Fe
I spent the month of July 1999 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This
was my third visit there. I rented a house which included
a large studio filled with windows, skylights and a panoramic
view of the city and surrounding hills. I made a series of
fourteen drawings on parchment paper. would routinely step
out onto a small balcony holding the paper wet with paint
and ink between my fingers and allow the bone-dry wind and
sunshine to dry the works within minutes. discovered that
I could use the wind like a tool, allowing degrees of drying
and molding of the parchment to achieve desired textures and
colors. During this daily process I found out that the emerging
themes of these drawings were the Santa Fe wind itself and
the dazzling clarity of the light through which the wind would
blow. When I returned to Redding, I looked at the two-sided
paneled steel grid paintings which I had made just before
going to Santa Fe and recognized in them a foreshadowing of
the work I was yet to do in New Mexico. If the parchment drawings
were about light and air, the steel grid pieces had the density
of earth: the tiny perforations allowed for air to filter
through, but these works were grounded. Together, the paper
drawings and the steel paintings constituted a yin and yang,
a geometry of the air. Yin is the ancient Chinese female cosmic
principle encompassing the moon and shade, while Yang is the
masculine cosmic principle referring to the sun, the light
and the air. These principles illuminated the process of making
the work in this exhibition.
Marc Osborne West Redding, CT January 2000
Pricelist,
GEOMETRIA
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