Sequential Self-Portrait 1 of 2, above (pastel and ink on paper, 17″ x 40″, 2004). During this period a musician friend and I were discussing showing my paintings during a musical performance. And I couldn’t reconcile the two. Music is controlled time. Visual art casts all on the viewer’s interest/control-of-time. It led me to think about ways visual art can take some control of time. Comics. And so I tried my hand at creating comics for the wall. I had built frames and mats that mimicked the comic books of my youth. I even added words, though they are very hard to make out in these photos. I hand drew text – in the case of the Sequential Self-Portraits the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. I had my writing etched into the glass. I wanted the words to be a time-control device – slowing down the viewer-reader – and for literal meaning, but I also wanted to lessen the conflict in the way we understand language and non-verbal images.
More of my sequential wall art, below. The sequential piece I did for the Thayer Symphony is in another post.
