Monday, May 13, 2013

SUN & MOON

Yet just as the day has two halves, one governed by the sun and the other by the moon, so there are many people of the day and who busy themselves with daytime deeds, whilst others are children of the night, their minds consumed by nocturnal notions; but yet there are some in whom the two merge like the rising of the sun and the moon in the day.


Aino Kallas





As companions to the night images of Arno and Barrett's portraits there are the two drawings that represent day and night - the sun flower with the golden host of butterflies and the moonflower with its ghostly butterflies and moths.  I have done a series of drawings using the idea of butterflies and moths camouflaged in a night sky - their markings helping them to pretend they are stars, galaxies, explosions. 


IO is a drawing dedicated to the moon of Jupiter discovered by Galileo.  The brightest moth, almost in the center of the drawing, is an Io moth, Automeris io, and below it is a butterfly called the Peacock, Inachis io.  The rest of the cast is working to blend into the night sky.  The Seurat-like border of the drawing is my interpretation of the one of the Hubble telescope photographs of the farthest realms of outer space.


FLY was drawn in honor of the retirement of Susan Gold from the art department of the University of Windsor.  Susan is one of my favorite artists and deserves the time to fly on her own.  It is a very difficult thing to achieve as an artist.


PAPILIO PARIS
Paplionidae Paplio paris is perhaps my favorite butterfly.  It is a beautiful name for a radiant creature. This is the most recent and may be the last in this series. Drawing dots can be addictive and also exhausting.  If there is one more it might be only black and white butterflies and moths with perhaps more color in the sky.

All of the specimens were drawn from the collection of the University of Michigan.   The curator of the collection, Mark O'Brien, has kindly given me access to the insect range and space to draw.
It is very much like what I imagine heaven would be.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

TWINS @ NIGHT

Night does not show things it suggests them.  It disturbs and surprises us with its strangeness.  It liberates forces within us which are dominated by our reason during the daytime.

Brassai



ARNO KLEIN


BARRETT KLEIN


ARNO & BARRETT @ NIGHT:   Identical twins are similar in profound ways while remaining  unique in all respects.  In these two portraits Arno and Barrett are surrounded by the energy of the heavens filled with many specimens of amazing insects.  Everything is in equal measure.  Find a beetle from the family Cerambycidae in one drawing and you will eventually find another of a different species in the other.  The stories balance one another - two parts of one puzzle.

Some people consider themselves day people and others will tell you they are best activated at night.  I would consider myself in the latter category.  I don't believe these two men are limited to any hour on the clock or season of the year.