29 May Cy Twombly

I’ve been making brushes and inks from objects found in the immediate environment. The marks made by the branches remind me of the markmaking of Cy Twombly. I stumbled across an exhibition of his many years ago in the Serpentine Gallery in London (Works on paper, 2004). The scumbled, scratched marks almost like handwriting, calligraphy. It feels like you are participating in the tactile surfaces and watching the dripping inks. I found a beautiful description of his work as having psychological intimacy. (). I like this idea of the viewer being aware of the process, and of the artist inviting the viewer into this participation. It also feels like these works are unfinished. Jullien’s essay on the Sketch talks about the power of “unfinished” work. (As does the Philosophy of living: When a sketch is left incomplete it “withdraws into its invisible fundamentals to let the latter appear”. It remains “in flight” (Jullien, 2016, p95). Maybe not a representation of something but something in itself.