Saturday, November 23, 2013

battling Resistance


After a week of restless, low-grade misery, I finally came up for air long enough to wonder whether this might be Resistance in action — that insidious force that obstructs movement from a lower sphere to a higher.  It's most powerful as the finish line nears.  And I wondered whether this blog could be Resistance relocated:  composing the next post pulls me from the project as compellingly as a phone call or the computer screen or gossip or even laundry — so well-disguised though that I mistake it for my work.  Is it, in part, Resistance rearing its head, as I near my goal?  Something shiny and new to distract from the challenge and fear of realizing a dream?

And then I read about Josef Albers’ teaching at Black Mountain College, and how sometimes, in lieu of lectures, he’d simply present to his students “silent concerts” of images.

These images all fold into my project in their own way.  So I to step aside, and offer them up. 

For this next week:  recognize Resistance, soothe nerves, work away, study the gallery space.  Enjoy the work itself.  And in the midst of compelling demands, take a moment to marvel at these mysterious assemblages of color and texture and pattern and line.



Anne Ryan

 Nicolas de Staël


Sean Scully

Richard Diebenkorn


Josef Albers


Julia Ris


Nicolas de Staël




Annie Stromquist


Emily Gherard


Anne Ryan