At The Edge of The World (My Journal II)
Moving further into the question of how we remember the dead, this week's journal has begun to expand on and explore the concept of monuments to our lost loved ones.
When a friend, who was a graffiti artist and a tagger passed away, a whole world of people memorialised him on walls. His name is a secret, and although these walls are there for all to see, only those who knew him can truly see the stories they tell and the parts of him they celebrate.
For others, there's the tattoo, and the contrast between graffiti and tattoo is something that's really interesting me. One is both raw and beautiful, the other can be that, but it carries a semi-permanence, on your arms for the rest of your life.
In exploring the concept of memorials, I've been challenging the idea of polished epitaphs, and sanitised forms that remember only what fits in a stilted form with no concept of what it means to die, or who it was and how great and unsalvageable a loss.
As I've drawn, also, new shapes and images have come out of the patterns, and I've explored that idea of a 'perfect expression', you'll see forms emerge, and words hide, and become the image in themselves.
Something I've become conscious of, since I started to share my private journal here publicly, is that I could be tempted to draw it as something that will be seen, and although ultimately it will become that, I've tried hard to be disciplined in drawing for expression rather than impression, so as I've become conscious of mistakes, I haven't tried to stop and be perfect, I've just kept going with what I'm trying to draw, see or understand.
You can see previous entries from my journal in the sidebar to the right, and to take a closer look at the pages below, just click to open them up in a viewer.
-B
