Once upon a time, long long ago, I did a lot of drawings that were cut into irregular shapes.The black outline you see above runs parallel to the cut edges of the paper. It was drawn with markers during the bicentennial year of 1976--31 years ago and a good four years before the Beanworld we all share today sprang into existence.
I see lots of foreshadowing of aesthetic decisions I made in the '80s. Although I expect that this drawing reflects some sort of pondering of the Tree of Knowledge or Apollo, the python and the laurel tree of the Oracle of Delphi.
Green Lantern substituting for Apollo is a bit peculiar.
This drawing caught my attention because it clearly shows my mind drifting towards the concept of Gran'Ma'Pa.
The sleeping critter in the foreground is based upon my cat--the original Mr Spook.
Wow, I never would have expected to see so much Bode in your work. Was this in the Documenta 5 period, or is this in the early days of your advertising career?
ReplyDeleteAs an admiring student of your work, I have been curious: does your work ever reference the occult and/or occult practice? I say this because you approach the "process" of Beanworld in a very sigilistic manner (symbols/metaphors/systems). Grant Morrison comes to mind as he also considered his seminal work "The Invisibles" a process rather than a product. Of course, he saw his series as one big magick spell activated the moment a reader finished it.
ReplyDeleteAny comments on this?
Y'know....
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that I'm not the only fan of your Beanworld stuff that would purchase a nice hardcover book of non- or pre- Beanworld artwork.
And as it happens, we got a kitten on 8/31 and named him MrSpook. It's a great cat name
ReplyDeleteCharles asked what "period" I was "in" when I did this drawing.
ReplyDeleteIt's pre-advertising--I didn't get into that until '77. And it was well past my "Documenta V" period of pure conceptualism. This woould be from my "Lithographics" period which lasted from "73-'76. It was while at Lithographics that my artwork started being refered to as "Beanworld."
The drawing itself was rendered on the back of a pre-printed paste-up board for the ad pages of the Farmington Horse Show program book. I can't for the life of me remember the actual name of this card stock but I had a huge pile of left-over stock and drew on it until it ran out sometime in the late '70s.
As far as the Bode influence--at that point all I knew about Bode was that his "Cheech Wizard" strip was a regular feature in the National Lampoon.All you have to do is take one peek at Professor Garbanzo and recognize that Bode's aesthetic made an impression on me.
In regards to Nino's question. Sure. I reference all sorts of magics & magicks. But generally indirectly.
As I've said so many times--I believe strongly in Marcel Duchamp's observation that "It is the viewer who makes the painting."
I've also always imagined a "key & lock" metaphor. I believe that an artist's work is a key. Not everyone has a lock that can be opened by this key.
When an artwork-key slips into a reader/listener/viewer/taster/observer's lock and it turns and the door slips open--that is what art is. That is what magic is too.It's easier to experience it than try to quantify it in words.
To Brian: Such a book would be kinda cool. Who knows--stranger things have happened!
And to Shield: I agree--it is an excellent name for a cat! As soon as I stumble across some good ones--I'll post some cartoons and photos of the late, great original Mr Spook. Would love to see a pic of the new little Mr Spook.