Experiment Diary/Drawings: 2

Here are more drawings from Experiment Diary/Drawings series. I was interested in using scientific experiment to show dynamics in relationships; power, emotions, balance/imbalance, and connection/disconnection. Interestingly enough, there are a lot of leakages, machines/equipments-breaking, and toxic chemicals. Now I see why—this was one of my first series after taking a year off from making art during my divorce process. Breakage, water spilling, mending, staining, working, working, working, more spilling, and creating.

8.10.00 Long Trail, VT (dripping sweat on yellow chair)

8.10.00: Unknown location (two yellow chairs, water from the mountains)

8.22.00: San Sebastian, Spain (siesta hours)

9.4.00: Monday, above some land

9.10.00: Madrid, Spain (acting like a 5 years old)

10.15.00: Ashburnham State Forest (dripping yellow chair)

Untitled (wilted plant and poison)

Experiment Diary/DrawingsPen and mineral pigment on mat board or paper
5"x 4" or 4"x 3 ½”
2000

Experiment Diary/Drawings: 1

I’ve been going through a lot of old drawings and sketches in the past year. It started when I had a flood in my basement last March and lost a lot of old drawings. I’ve began to scan some of them to organize these little drawings better. It’s been interesting to revisit these random drawings. This series of drawings is from 2000. I used to carry a small cardboard case that could fit 4”x6” papers, and I carried it with pen and papers inside everywhere I went. I was always drawing whenever I had a chance. On the back of the paper, I often recorded the location, date, and the number of steps, calories and miles from a pocket pedometer that was attached to my body. I usually wrote some poem or texts as well.  I must have been obsessed with record keeping at that time. Not only I kept those records and included on the backside of each drawing, I remember that I also recorded everything I consumed for a day in my journal.  With those texts and records on the back, these little drawings are like diary, and seeing them again after ten years, it is interesting to see how I still use some of the same images as recurring vocabularies in my current work.

These are some of the drawings from the series, Experiment Diary/Drawings.



7.15.00. East Gloucester, MA




7.15.00. Unknown Location




7.16.00. Harvard Sq. Cambridge, MA




7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary (same result)




7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary 2




7.23.00. Newburyport, MA (yellow chair watching the blue screen on TV)




Back of 7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary 2




Back of 7.23.00. Ipswitch, MA - River Wildlife Sancturary




Back of 7.23.00. Newburyport, MA



Experiment Diary/Drawings

Pen and mineral pigment on mat board

5"x 4" each, 2000

Altered book pages

I love working on old book pages. This practice goes back to 1998. Dear John was comprised of a total of 152 pages from a book called Stories by Elizabeth Bowen, published in 1959. Each page was painted in watercolor, leaving selected words and sentences visible. As its title suggests, this work reflected my emotions and feelings at that time in my life, and I treated it almost like my personal diary. This practice is something that I keep going back time to time.

In 2008 when I was between jobs, I picked up a book called A White Hand: A Story of Noblesse Oblige by Ella Farman (1875), and this time, unlike the other work, Dear John, I just had fun. I sold many of them, and I didn't document nearly a half from this book. I don't even know how many pages I actually completed. These are just several pages that I was able to scan.

She patiently waits

I am the sinner

Thanks for this great care

His protracted absence



And still he cannot understand



Small hands clinging so tightly

Altered book page series from A White Hand: A Story of Noblesse Oblige by Ella Farman

Mineral pigment on book page

4 ½”x 7”.  2008