A Voyage around my Room # 1
First attempt to ‘map’ my studio: I was thinking it would be more analytical in terms of some system of encoding (e.g. different colours for routes around the room, electrical sources, most frequently occupied spaces etc) but that quickly broke down to something more intuitive, but with the density of marks somehow reflecting nodes of activity. It partly resembles drawings based on sketched diagrams and plans I had discarded, then re-examined (e.g. for a shelving system, or to re-route an electrical circuit, or a plumbing repair). Sometimes drawings made quickly, for some ‘non-art’ purpose, have much more decisiveness and impetus, than when you sit down in the studio and think: ‘… and now I shall make some art …’
Jeff you look so busy in your room! I am imagining you with lots of arms now
I’m quite ‘armless really
I think surface tension … finding the right surface tension … has a lot to do with whether a painting or drawing seems ‘finished’, i.e. can hold together.
Frank Auerbach calls it ‘tense surface design’. There is even a clip in a film (‘The Last Art Film‘ by his son Jake) where he relates this notion to the design of the Union Flag. I really don’t assume anything about Auerbach’s politics from this, but it’s oddly distracting.