Still, Life Without You–19
*TOUCH the drawing for both iterations
Still, Life Without You–19 marries two drawings. They portray observations of glass, forms and textures during an unmoored experience of isolation [works titled with suffix "–
19" were influenced by the COVID–
19 pandemic].
These artworks hang as one two-sided piece to illustrate
floating between two connections. First, with dear friends through their gifts of flowers and fruits. Second, with an open hand seeking in–person contact.
Still, Life asserts, "And still, there
is life."
Still, Life Without You–19 expresses being adrift in a sea of reflection while reaching up from the abyss.
They represent both the full freedom and the enhanced self–determination to remain intrinsically motivated and focused on an aesthetic life.
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How might a bowl of tangerines, a jar of fig spreads or a vase of cut flowers, in some way, preserve life simply by remaining? Vessels represent the transience of emptiness — what is inside, what is outside.
What is a glass container but a liquid that shall be melted down into a puddle? When does it stop being a bowl, or a jar, or a vase? Where is the liquefied vessel when it is formed into a sculpture of a hand (cupped open like a vessel) holding, perchance, local cut flowers, a jar of Provence fig spread, or a Satsuma mandarin.
What does it mean to be and then erode from being? Does erosion indicate a peak of existence, a moment when life energy is optimal; optimal for whom?
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This artwork is a sister to
Drawing Innards Dreamt
The above pieces, complete Project
116 of
Mendelowitz's Guide To Drawing, 3rd Edition using digital pencil, smudge, and liquefy.
EMPTINESS
"In the cessation of craving, we touch that dimension of experience that is timeless: the playful, unimpeded contingency of things emerging from conditions only to become conditions for something else.
This is emptiness: not a common vacuum but the unborn, undying, and infinitely creative dimension of life. It is known as the “womb of awakening." It is the clearing in the still center of becoming, the track on which a centered person moves. And whispers: “Realize Me.”
—Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
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Still, Life Without You–19
