In Progress and Another Finished Set....

So this is a set that I showed in production in an earlier entry here on this fine blog. Yes sir, The from of the Blue Box! This is about 60 of them strung up. There are two simple images: A Buddha and a tree and a Buddha and some bird cages. There are another 20 to string up for the set to be complete. I am moving past the super long strands of the summer project and looking into layering.

The last few projects have seen higher numbers of prints being pulled. The idea of repetition mass production and focus have become pretty obsessive lately. I suppose you could call it meditative. There seems to be an act of minimalization developing. How can one or two repeated images create a totality? What is the notion of the group functioning as a whole? Some very curious questions. And then I realize it is not that separate from studying zen koans. The act of much time spent on one story or question is similar to the manner of printing I have taken to. I do not think I could really call these Zen but perhaps the act of printing them just might be. I'll post the finished project after the sewing is complete. I wonder what the storm yesterday has done for them....

Above is another finished project. 60 paving stones in all. I am still playing with the actual layout similar to the one in a previous entry. There are 4 different Buddha images from my travels in Japan. During the production of these the focus has really become focused on the Buddha. No grounds or trees or anything else. I am looking at the paving stone, the image and the collection as a whole piece. I suppose I have started entering the world of sculpture as someone recently pointed out. I have not really looked at them in that perspective. In truth I have really been considering them more as garden art. Not really earth art, not really sculpture, not really in the land of Smithson or Lin. Granted I do admire those artists greatly. I suppose the focus is more dated back to them as part of a larger whole. How would these have fit into a temple in Asia back in the 1300's is more my perspective.

I have another set being started this week. Craziness of the week permitting. this set will be composed of one image over the sixty some stones I have purchased. The idea is to put the above flags and this set of stones together in a mixed set of intentions. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

I believe, finally, after the completion of the next set I will actively work to get these out in the world. elf promotion is not my strong point but as I have a good inventory building up I should probably do something with them. I have about six different projects to work with. Many friends have suggested some good sights to contact and work with. November sounds like a good month for that. As well I have found a residency I will be applying for that would happen next summer... IN RURAL JAPAN!!!!

Until next time....