Dimensionally Barrett

It's been a lovely time. Leaving is bittersweet, of course; however, the next leg of this journey takes me back to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where I'll be spending long overdue family time!  In the meantime, returning to old haunts, some changed beyond recognition, has been fun. Much has happened in the world since I've been back, but over the course of the next few entries, I'm likely going to spend more time on art, gardens, literature, and reminiscences shared and unshared. I restricted myself to well-trod paths (in some cases, literally; there's the Alewife Footpath, and the lovely stroll into Harvard Square from my dear friend Graziella's house, which will henceforth and ever be called Venti. I could sing Graziella's praises all day; she's not just a gracious host, but a woman of innate strength, deep introspection, and a huge heart. She and Joyce, another of the inestimable heart-sisters in my life are a team of love and fun that can raise the s...

In the foreground is one of Sonny’s pieces. From Artists Beyond Boundaries Group Exhibit, 2017 Not that there is anything “usual” about these Myanmar updates, but if anything, this one is more personal. One of Myanmar’s great artists passed from this world from COVID. U Sonny Nyein was a great sculptor and a fine human being. I did not know him well, but I liked him and enjoyed our limited time together.   All of these updates are personal, though. Not that I might not have acknowledged the devastation afflicting Myanmar for less personal reasons, but the simple fact is that if you spend time with people in a country so warm and welcoming, especially artist peers and colleagues, this becomes family. I don’t really want to spend much time on the Tatmadaw. I don’t want to pay them any mind today nor do I particularly want to discuss COVID and how these twin disasters are laying waste to this beautiful country and its people.  I do want to offer support to my friends and the...

“Each/Other” by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger In Denver recently, I had a chance to take in the “Each/Other” exhibition by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, both Native American artists whose work - separately and together - rest on collaboration as both an operative term, as well as a point of departure for inspiration and reflection.   As part of the mission statement at the Denver Art Museum’s installation, the wish was that each piece on display would foster a sense of the scope of each person’s experience in being part of the process. This is adds several levels of depth and dimensions to the work before us. This should be a guiding principle in viewing most large-scale works; the understanding that any given piece is not merely the result of one person’s effort adds a richness to the experience of engaging with that piece.  However, this is not something that many artists tend to emphasize, despite the number of assistants big name artists (and sometimes not ...

I am still kicking around a continuation or a companion piece to a painting I did for my sister a few years back and things took a different tack. In the course of reading some Daoist alchemy texts and essaying my first stab at Chinese translation, I found a sudden visual inspiration/corollary to the work. I’ve also been teaching taijiquan and qigong to seniors – until the first week in March, to be sure – and I think the additional load of those practices may have opened up additional gates for this. In any case, there’s a fair bit of work coming out of me again. Some of it okay, some of it wretched, and some of it, I actually like. What I’ve been mulling over today is the digestion of specific visual/aesthetic events and their metamorphoses into something else. “After Ellsworth”, the work in progress under consideration here, is a case in point. Ellsworth Kelly - Houston Triptych, 1986 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston  In 1986, a sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly wa...

When my old friend Pamela Blotner asked me where I'd be in June, I probably said, "Kathmandu". I can't imagine I'd say, "France" or "Borneo". France is lovely; Borneo I don't know. But Pamela dropped a nugget about Artists Beyond Borders sometime ago and she similarly dropped it yet again, to the effect that ABB would be assembling an exhibit at the American Center in Yangon and promoting collaborations among Burmese artists for about three weeks. I don't think she was fishing for me to volunteer, but if she was, her subtle powers certainly worked because I asked when I should be there. Easy-peasy. I arrived a few days before Pamela and her colleagues, Mie Preckler and Elizabeth Addison and over the course of time, I would fall for Yangon (and by extension, Myanmar). From a human rights perspective, I'm not a stranger to Myanmar's place in - particularly - the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I...

I've enjoyed working on these illustrations for Shantosh Shrestha's book "The Colour of Life". I wrapped up the last one last night and enjoyed working on it the past couple of days. The first day wasn't much; I just laid out a white ground, and the second day started messing about with the dark blue underpainting that you can see fairly well. I basically approached this last piece the way I'd approach a monotype; I just decided to manipulate the pigments differently and kind of got in my printmaker headspace that I wanted an unpredictable outcome, more so than usual. That said, the underpainting was based on a drawing that I don't have at hand and acted as more or less the base plan for the piece. The linear aspects of this are directly from the drawing, but the color is based more on another project. I commissioned a thangka from my friend Tashi Tsering at Rinchenling Gallery and Thangka School. Next up was quite literally, meditating on the ne...

Roberto Matta, 2000, N’ou’s autres, a very young 89 These past few weeks of working on illustrations for Santosh Shrestha's book "The Color of Life", have been particularly thought-provoking in terms of revisiting old influences and old terrain. When I was 17 or so, I grew increasingly interested in the later works of Ernst and Tanning and began to Max Ernst, Heavenly Army, 1970 appreciate the animistic elements in Wilfredo Lam. Later, Rufino Tamayo would cast a heavier spell and the throughline has pretty much been Roberto Matta. I remember my art history teacher Pat Zeitoun, a terrific painter in her own right, opined at me, "well, you know Matta's not a surrealist"; I was totally baffled why she'd state something that 1) I and everyone else already knew and 2) so what? I loved Pat and she was a funny, enthusiastic instructor but that always lingered in the background like a koan. I didn't have any deep reply for her then. I just shrug...

Okay. I don't normally do this; but I miss architectural renderings and in general just goofing with structure. This is actually for a friend's birthday card and now it occurs to me...hmmm, "birthday card"? Takes half an hour to knock one of these out? Just call me Johnny Hallmark, South Asian Office. Might not be a bad way to make a little on the side. This is such karma: how many times have I walked by gift shops with souvenirs and cards like this and said, "huh, maybe not a bad idea...." Oooooh, you better believe it; it might be an idea whose time has come!!! And there are so many more holidays here. Gee willikers, I best get to work! Order yours today (kidding...until I'm not! Keep your eyes posted; I might just be inspired.)

Yes, there will be others. One of the beauties of traveling as I've been is that I do set down long enough that I can knock out a few small pieces. At some point, this will be problematic if I set down long enough to do larger works. I'll leap that crevice when it opens. I am keeping a journal, of sorts, because I like to keep the hand/eye coordination going. Usually, it's quick, gestural stuff; in a couple of cases, I've gotten caught up in details of buildings. All that's for another time because what I'm working on now is a series of acrylic and gouache illustrations for a friend's book (which I need to hustle on since it goes to press right as I'm leaving). Santosh's book is titled "The Color of Life". He'd seen some some stuff I've been monkeying with and really liked. He asked if I'd be interested in providing him some images and I said yes. The beauty of that is that we both agree that poetry by its nature is abstr...