Pages from a small notebook that I fill with 'sketches' in collage: usually, two or three images stuck together to get my brain going for a session of working on larger, more complicated pieces. Sometimes simply a place to put the too-small collage.

Collage Sketchbook

Labels: art, collage

New Collages, from late 2009


If you are interested in purchasing an original of any of these collages, drop me a line.

Labels: art, collage

Labels: art, collage

This is a woodcut made by my wife's grandfather: Spyros Vassiliou was (until his death in 1984) a great artist, and was a part of an important community of Greek painters in the middle of the 20th century. He also designed sets and costumes for the theater, which is how he met my father-in-law, a playwright from Yale who ended up marrying the painter's daughter. My wife was the first child of that union, and met me in the theater department at Bennington College. And that's pretty much how I came to be in possession of the above woodcut.

I love Spyros' paintings, but I love his woodcuts even more. The artist turned to wood during World War II, when painting supplies were scarce, and during a time when the Germans occupied Greece (the German military had, in fact, a kind of base of operations in the old house that became my wife's family's home).

The woodcuts are simple and display big symbolic themes (freedom, hope, peace, etc), as you'd expect from a war-time body of work. But the woodcut above is entirely unique in the collection.

It shows a Greek ship in a storm, which itself is not unique in a maritime culture. What is unique is that the ship is covered with devils who are threatening to tear the ship to bits, as if the storm was not enough of a threat. Also surprising is that the picture-story is not about brave Greek sailors fighting to save the ship, but about an old priest who stands in the scene praying. Now, I understood this artist to be, like most Greeks, only culturally Christian, even though he was commissioned to paint the interiors of several orthodox churches: there is little sign in his work (or in his family line, I'm sorry to say) of a vibrant faith. But what am I to make of this picture? This is a picture that betrays a faithful vision.

Where did this painter get the idea that priests are warriors? Let's not focus unfairly on Greece, or on the orthodox countries: in no country do priests or pastors tend to reveal themselves to be more than quiet and somewhat harmless participants in society, who know their place. I know of no stories of bravery among the Greek priesthood during the war, and anyway, this is not that kind of militant courage. It takes a different kind of vision to see the true occupation of the priest-who-is-also-a-warrior.

The ship in the image is a symbol for the church, of course, and this priest is not just fighting the only fight that a priest is suited for, but the only real fight there is. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesian Christians that, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the ... world forces of ... darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." This woodcut is a really cool depiction of the hidden power of the priest.

What is equally exciting to me, is that this artist, great-grandfather to my son and daughter, seems to understand that the church is more than capable of surviving rough water ... and that the wise priest sees, with the eyes of the spirit, that the danger to a ship is never really the storm itself, but those forces that threaten to reduce the seaworthiness of the vessel.

Labels: art

A series of character studies in collage from the last part of this year.

Portraits in Collage

Labels: art, collage

Some new works, including new notebook covers. Other recent works were inspired by the lyrics of a musician friend, Nick Bartunek of Picture Atlantic.



2008 collages ...

Labels: art, collage

The Thing, the Golem, and what's at the heart of the stone

If you go to adherents.com you can learn many interesting things related to religious practice in the world, including the religious affiliation of any famous person. One of my favorite pages on this site is the list of super heroes and comic book characters. Yes, this is the place to learn that Marvel's Elektra is Greek Orthodox, Superman is Methodist/Kryptonian, X-Man Sabretooth was an atheist who saw the light ...

"... Wolverine attends the funeral of [his arch-rival] Sabretooth, and learns that Sabretooth became a devout "born-again" Christian. Sabretooth's funeral was attended by scores of people who testified about how Sabretooth had touched their lives and had been an inspiration to them."

Other facts obvious (Super Bahai Girl is ... Bahai) and less obvious (the character Wiccan, from the Young Avengers, is not a fan of Harry Potter, but a reformed Jew) abound.

One of my favorite comic characters is The Thing (not really the slightly stupid-looking movie character from recent films, but the Jack Kirby creation). The Thing, one of the Fantastic Four, was turned to stone by some kind of space-radiation. There is something iconic in this hulking rock-man that makes me think of humankind in general (made from earth and bound by our "hearts of stone"). On The Thing's page, Adherents quotes a story about the issue where his Jewish faith is revealed ...

... Bending over the fallen [Jewish pawn broker] Sheckerberg, The Thing prays the traditional "Sh'ma Yisrael," the Hebrew confession at death. Sheckerberg survives and asks Grimm the question on many readers' minds: "All these years in the news, they never mention you're Jewish. I thought maybe you were ashamed of it a little." Grimm explains that, to the contrary, he did not want to bring shame on the Jewish community. "Figure there's enough trouble in this world without people thinkin' Jews are all monsters like me." When Grimm tries to return the stolen Star of David, the pawnbroker refuses it, likening Grimm to the Golem--the legendary living statue said to have protected Prague's persecuted Jews."

Once my young son and I were trolling in our local Target: he'd saved up a few dollars and wanted to buy a toy. We saw a Thing action figure. I thought it was pretty cool and pointed it out to him. He shrugged his approval and kept looking. He had trouble making up his mind, and I kept asking him, hey what about this Thing doll? He got as firm as a six year-old can get and said that he didn't really want that one. Then I realized ... I wanted it. Hey, I have six dollars! Timo bought the giant green-foam Hulk Punching Fists with Realistic Roaring Sounds, and I bought The Thing, who still stands over my computer.

Timo was stuck with me in my office one summer day, and I gave him the doll, showed him how he could push him flat against a piece of paper and draw his outline, crime-scene style. The resulting images were inspiring (to me ...), and I expanded the project. Without realizing what we were doing, and without being aware of Benjamin Grimm's Jewish story at the start, we created a kind of Old Testament Review of characters, even evoking the story of the Golem, the earth monster with a heart that is at the root of the Frankenstein story (another story with surprising theological implications). The project, as it stands, contains the original 'outlines', a freehand sketch by Timo, and a couple of the collages I've made that feature Ben Grimm.

[Gallery]

Labels: art, collage

I've been covering my notebooks ever since I started scratching the brand names out on undecorated books I bought. Then I started covering them. Then I started sticking more things on. Then I started making art out of my feelings when I opened a new book. It started simple, and it's gotten to be a regular ritual, one that is really satisfying, encouraging, and freeing. As a work of art, it is more liberating than most things I do, because there are no external constraints on my collages. I'm just doing it for me, and the pace is right: about every two or three months, I start a new book, and a new collage. I may make it before I start writing, I may wait until the book has begun to be written.

Labels: art, collage

From our Pentecost service in 2005, "Stations of Pentecost": this station was about interacting with the "other" in our midst (the station included a "Phrasebook", like you'd use to get around a foreign country).

ICON OF THE OTHER

"When we encounter others, we are painfully aware of the effects of our fall from grace -- sin is ever before us. We choose not to speak because we are afraid of causing offense or being misunderstood. We read judgment or anger or impatience in their faces, whether it is there or not.

We have always believed that the Holy Spirit can help us know what to say, at the right time. Do we also believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in the other, translating our imperfect words into words of life?"

The Phrasebook had little spurs to conversation like, "Say what you're thinking -- God has been working on your thoughts", and "Don't be afraid of what you think a person thinks (you're probably wrong)", and, "Ask an honest question about them ... you might get an honest answer". The book also had room for people to write their own thoughts about the conversation.

Labels: art