Borradores - The Carroll Studio Gallery

“Облака Дрейфуют” (Clouds Drift)

“Облака дрейфуют… (Clouds drift…”)

A book of blank pages, with a sewn binding, purchased at an art supply store. I have many variations of these, too many in which pages are yet blank. And more than a few with only one or two pages worked on. “World enough and time…” as Andrew Marvell put it (albeit in another context).

White board cover, white pages 8” x 6”. Title page inscribed to Laurette. 10 pages, primarily with drawings in pencil; some writing in pen and colored ink; touches of watercolor and collage.

My foreign language pursuits enter here. The title “Borradores” is Spanish for “Drafts; rough copies; draft copies”;… the word “borrador” means “eraser”. Eight pages feature drawings of crumpled paper, six of these with writing, in a mix of English, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian.

This is one of the concepts to which I most want to return. I know that if that should ever be possible, drawings such as these would undergo an evolution – even in such a basic manner as scale – and lead on to other directions.

I have envisioned some as being large sculptures in outdoor settings (with the assistance of structural technicians).

This book is one more key evocation of my desire to combine art and writing, the theme that appears, disappears, and reappears in various manifestations over the course of my life’s work.

The origins of this departure, and they are humble, lie in my being struck by pieces of crumpled paper lying on the kitchen table. These structures were discards from Laurette’s notes, account keeping, garden lists, and the like.

The facets, lights and darks within the folds, those cast by the whole object, occasional bits of writing and color… the fragmentations and suggestions not fully expressed appealed to me deeply.

I began to collect them. Part of the phenomenon was that only her way of crumpling, if it can be said that there are distinct styles for crumpling paper (I believe this), led to constructions that were so evocative.

When I tried to emulate this unconscious artistry of hers, I never produced a model that would serve as a model. I never asked her specifically to crumple a piece of paper for me, but kept an eye out for what possibilities might be lying in one place or another.

The small “canvases” for the approach I had in mind for drawings that featured fragmentary writings had to come by chance, originate unintentionally.

I intend to provide an index of translations from the foreign language fragments on the two blank pages that remain.

This unique object forms a body of work (“another gallery in itself”) , as is the case with virtually all of my hardbound books and sketchbooks. It is something that I feel belongs in a core archival collection, representative of an individual path that is at the same time a product of my many ways of working.

If this opportunity does not arise, and content not including this book were to form the basis of a core collection, it would be available as an individual purchase for $5,000.00.