Dimensionally Barrett

This chapter, it seems to me, is less about “being kind” to language than recognizing language’s power, not just to communicate outwardly with others, but as the means by which we frame and order out thoughts and take in the messages from without. Snyder here is asking us to be aware of the epistemic nature of thought and words and how we as individuals can shore up and reinforce thinking independently and critically while offering tools on how to do so. Snyder introduces us to Victor Klemperer, a phonologist and scholar of Jewish origin who used his training to combat Nazi propaganda. He noticed how.the a term like “the people” was exclusionary; it meant some but not all people. This may seem tangential, but I don’t think it is: the term of “people” in German is   Volk , and had been used, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries as equivalent to “national spirit”. This was part of a larger philosophical movement that sought to identify the uniqueness of the German people withi...

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...

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...