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[click image to enlarge] |
Via email I asked Philip some questions about the drawing: its size, materials, and working methods. His generous reply is included below.
We sometime forget that in looking at art on the internet we are looking at a reproduction. It is important in this light to reconstruct sensuous features imaginatively to deepen and attune our aesthetic engagement.
Most of what follows is proper to the artist’s individual interior (intentions, states) and individual exterior (behavior, skills): the UL and UR of the artist’s being in the world and making the drawing.
(The opening of Philip’s response reports that this “piece was commissioned,” pointing towards social-cultural dimensions: to the artist’s meaningful relationship and interactions with the patron [LL], and to the artist’s social and economic exchanges with the patron [LR]. These collective dimensions will not be developed in the present exploration, but will be explored in other art and aesthetic offerings on Integral Life, as with the current posting here.)
Please pay attention to Philip’s account of the genesis of this automatic drawing; looking carefully at the drawing in light of this account:
This piece was commissioned. The collector wanted an "automatic drawing" (which, when finished, I sometimes call "Shambhala"), but in truth it should be left open: so 'automatic drawing' is fine.
It is 11 x 14 inches in size. Its materials are heavy weight paper, resin-oil painting medium, glass powder, egg tempera white, water, cobalt blue and zinc white oil paint, black felt pen.
The paper itself was originally a light silver gray with an almost metallic like feel to the surface, heavily coated with a semi-glossy finish. I then made an 'imprimatura' or first-ground with powdered glass, and a slightly tinted blue-white oil color all mixed together in a home-made resin-oil painting medium. A glaze was evenly applied to the surface. This took about 10 minutes. Let dry.
I then took my egg tempera white and diluted it in water. I dipped a twisted rag into the white, sopping wet. I then sat and stilled my mind. In a clear 'no-mind' state I took the white-wet-rag and rolled it on the surface, squeezed more white out of the rag and let it drip and pour onto the paper and then removed some white. So a kind of add and subtract process randomly creating abstract forms. This part took about 2 minutes. Let dry.
Finally, I came back to the piece with a black felt pen and sat. I looked at the piece - became lost in the abstract forms until in a few moments I saw the entire celestial scene (not unlike a Rorschach test) … like some landscape made of light. I immediately started making the vision solid by drawing it out from behind the veil of the surface it lived in. This final stage took about 20 - 30 minutes and was quite fluid and liberating unlike my more meticulous works that can be labor-intensive for months.
PRJ, November 2009 |
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