Dies Luna
Luna wx 69%v
“Indeed, the study of real-life events is inherently multidisciplinary, methodologies being procedural sets whose goal is to reduce complexity to manageable proportions, abstracting away factors defined as tangential to the explanations at hand. At the same time, however, those who embrace multidisciplinarity sometimes assume that they are above the law of the disciplines whose boundaries they transgress. The opposite is the case…Multidisciplinarity is not a-disciplinarity, but rather what the word says: multi-. It exacts a higher degree of discipline than conformity to any single methodology.”
-George Lang, from Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon
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“No culture of the mind is enough to make a garden of your soul.”
-Carl Jung, The Red Book (Liber Novus, “The Desert”)
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Frustrated. It feels like all I’ve been doing for about a month now is reading and drawing. Drawing plans, researching, revising the plans, redrawing the plans, searching for a machinist, transcribing notes from book to computer, drawing some more. I’ve tried to keep my efforts and attention focused on this project and not meander out -with some degree of success- but the downside is that it’s dragging and I get no relief by fleeing to beginning another project.
My instructor assures me that it’s fine, and that all this inertia to overcome is the result of trying to build machinery that doesn’t already exist. Progress is happening, there’s just not much to show for it yet (compared to the other students). I decided that while I’m waiting I should do a piece using a technique that I enjoy and am comfortable with in the mean time. A “quickie” to remind myself that metalwork is actually pretty fun . So I’m making a saw-drawing of a goat in brass, a tiny plaque to go on T’s new manouche gypsy guitar.
Have also been doodling a lot of seal-style abstracted representations of local geological/topographical features. The doodling has also been playful and fun, once I loosened up and allowed myself to do it. I am attracted to the idea of having pictorial representations of aspects of place serve as symbols of value, but want to steer very clear of anything that might look like some kind of commemorative coin or medal. There are plenty of artists (around here especially) who lay the sentimentality on pretty thick when it comes to “place-based” or environmentally-themed art. I don’t find that very interesting.
In relation to the current project, and considering the choice of symbol to convey value, have been thinking about spoken (& written) language as symbols linking a particular sound (or graphic shape representing a sound) with object, concept, or action. To that end, reading about Chinook Wawa, a regional trade language used in the 18th-late 19th c. from north of B.C. to the San Francisco Bay and from the Pacific to the Rockies. Still want to start those Latin lessons, but this seems more pertinent at the moment and satisfies my itch to learn a new language.
The job has also taken up a lot more time and energy than expected due to some unforeseen complications that had to be dealt with. Plus moving the bank account to the credit union, getting the car refinanced and transferring the credit card balance to a CU card has required some attention. 1-800-got-junk hauled away a porch-full of junk I’ve been waiting a long time to clear out. That feels good.
The dailies continue to anchor and inspire. As does Jung’s Red Book. Wow. Highly recommended, if only for the illuminations and paintings. The text is a solid example of the conversation resultant from attainment of K&C. I had to wait several months before it was available for check out from the library but it’s quite worth it. It’s the real deal.