The large pale disk of the sun throws its heat and light upon a landscape of warm and cool coloured buildings that rise to higher ground. Tall spindly trees reach skyward in this place of still mystery. Before reading on, glance again at the image to form your own feelings and thoughts...
Although the painting has an abstract and magical quality, there are enough elements that allow it to also be recognised as a landscape, although it feels as much an expression of the earth, as it does a human made urban scene. The clear forms of pathways, buildings, and stairs gradually give way to simple geometric primitive shapes, as if with distance the edge of our view becomes less obscure.
Artworks I make are only complete when the title is also present. When visual artworks and music I create are experienced without language, without their titles, they miss out on the essential interplay between the sensory experience of the work, and the context and meaning that is provided by language. In 'Each Alone When Close' I gaze at the shapes, colours, texture, and tone, and ponder on how each word relating to the scene expands the reading and significance of it.
I muse on the words once more: Each Alone When Close.
Perhaps the word 'each' could refer to those who inhabit the buildings of this place that reminds me of an ever warming world, signified by the giant ball of sun that rests against the horizon. I see no clear representation of a human. No animal. Just the leafless trees that seem to raise their limbs as if out of thirst.
The homes here are harmonious in their shapes and colours as they merge one into another. I return to the title and think of how in human communities, each person or family lives so close to one another, yet often remain apart and alone. This seems true as much for our inner world's too as we build walls that prevent even our friends and loved ones from easily coming into direct contact with our innermost feelings and thoughts.
Although the sky is full of heat and sand, the blue path from the sun that broadens and winds down into the town represents life and water, and this cools the thirst and heat of the buildings and those within them. The warm and cool tones also speak of the differences between us, and of our daily moods, at times fiery, and at others, calm.
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Touch one of the slides below to enlarge. Each Alone When Close...
