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| 1: "Bookmark", 2018-12-07 |
One the most old art we know is paintings in caves in Lascaux, France. The paintings are on limestone walls in dark karst caves, and we think they are 17 thousand years old. They are painted with mineral colors, sometimes mix with fat. Many paintings are faded or gone. The cave was closed maybe for 10 thousand years, and when people open it in 1940s, happen the humid air bring mold and the paintings start become black. People close the cave, and they try fix the paintings. They make replica cave paintings in other places. They try save the Lascaux cave paintings and make them stay the same. But there is mold there still from feet walking in the cave soil, kicking the spores in the air.
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| 2: "Spring Wildflowers", 2018-12-13 |
Most people know The Last Supper mural. It is in a convent dining room in Italy. Leonardo da Vinci painted it in the 1490s. Most the paint now is chipped away, because the wall keeps humidity in it and the paint not stick very good. Many people try restore it, two times in 18th century, one time in 19th century, four times in 20th century. There is still some paint from Leonardo, maybe. The painting now is similar his painting, but it is the same painting?
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| 3: "Summer Wildflowers", 2018-12-17 |
In late 20th century, people decide the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome, painted by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in early 16th century, have too much stain from smoke. So happen they decide they need clean it, and they removed the dirt and find different colors under. Some people love the change, and other people think it destroy the chiaroscuro from Michelangelo his work. They also try fix the times people restore the painting before, in 16th, 17th, 18th, and early 20th century.
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| 4: "Fall Wildflowers", 2018-12-27 |
In March 2001, people exploded two 100 foot tall buddha statues in Afganistan. These statutes were 1,500 years old. They were exploded because people did not like they are statues of people with faces. Now there are only carved holes and the statues are piles. People still try make them live again, with hologram projection.
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| 5: "Winter Wildflowers" 2018-12-17 |
The Roman Seneca write, "Ars longa, vita brevis." This mean, "Life is short, art is long." But most art in all history is gone. Pictograms in the desert wear in grit in wind and sun and rock fall and people touch. The pyramids in Egypt, most are now piles, the most large have no limestone protect them still. Dharahara in Kathmandu and many other very old buildings were destroyed in the earthquake in 2015. War in 20th century destroyed many old buildings in Europe, many museums, many churches. Every time some person decide, I should restore this art, they change it, and it becomes something different from how the first artist made it.
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| 6: "Some Ohio Trilliums", 2018-12-17 |
The only reason Lascaux cave paintings they are still here is because they were in a dry covered cave no person visit or remember, accidentally protected for 17 thousand years. There are more old art works, but not many, and they are all in or on stone. Paint and canvas they are fragile, paper burns or rips really easy, ink fades in sun, brick buildings fall, metal and leather and cloth rot. And if we find some way make art in quartz crystals, they will still all melt in subduction under tectonic plates or when the sun become a red giant millions or billions years after now.
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| 7: "Dragon", 2018-12-17 |
No art is forever. One thousand years maybe seem long for us, but it is one thousand times smaller than one million years, and we have no art from humans more old than 700 thousand years, some holes carved in a cave in India. In 10 thousand years, there is no Sistine chapel or Last Supper. The Lascaux paintings will fade from the humidity, the holes the Bamiyan Buddhas stand in they will wear away. The most old buildings we know, in Catahoyuk and Mehrgarh and Jericho, are all rock piles.
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| 8: "Acer pensylvanicum", 2019-01-20 |
Then happen, why when I think, what art I should make, why I should think, I should make art it will live a long time? All my art will fade, and if one piece stay for 5 generations still no one will remember me. No one remember Michelangelo and Leonardo, not really, We can read about them but no one remember them; all people they can remember them they are gone for 400 years. Their art will change and fade and people will try fix it and still change it or maybe destroy it. Ten thousand years is only 500 generations, and all people will forget me in less than one one-hundreth that time.
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| 9: "Aconitum columbianum noveboracense", 2019-02-07 |
I like drawing bookmarks. Every bookmark start the same way, it is blank 6 x 2 inch watercolor paper I cut. The paper is nice and stiff, it feel heavy, it is a nice bookmark paper. I draw a frame on the paper, around the edge. Then happen I draw something inside. It is a small drawing, I not need more than 1 or 2 hours for draw it. Not a lot time. I like plants so happen most times I draw plants, but sometimes I draw other things. It is not really important for draw same kind thing every time, because I can do something different next time. After each drawing I write the name on the back and sign it. Some I keep for use with my books. Other bookmarks I give friends or family.
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| 10: "Aconitum uncinatum", 2019-04-04 |
When people talk about ephemeral art, most times they mean installation or performance art. But really all art is ephemeral in different time scales. There is other word, "ephemera". It means "something of no lasting significance", but also it means paper things people throw away after they use them. Paper bookmarks are one kind ephemera. Libraries and bookstore give them, sometimes people sell them, but they are for use until people loose them or rip and throw away them. They are for remember where you stop reading in a book, so you can start again, you not need search for your page. I don't know how much time paper bookmarks live, but I think maybe decades is long time, if people love them and use them.
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| 11: "Claytonia virginica", 2019-10-24 |
For make art bookmarks, for make them with little frame and still think people should use them, I think that is interesting contradiction. A bookmark hang on wall under glass is a little bit silly. It is not a bookmark if no people use it for marking books. But if I draw a bookmark, I can watch it change. It will bend some, the paper will become more weak. It will become dirty or dusty. It will stain or become wet. The ink is permanent, so happen it should not bleed, but it will fade in the sun. The corners will bend and sometime if people love it enough it will rip or they will lose it. It is a velveteen rabbit kind art. It is audio cassette tape; the more I listen, the more the tape lose the magnetic charge and lose the music.
And I think this is all okay. This is normal. Art is not forever, my art is not forever, and I want remember this. Because I know it is not forever I can not worry about what happen it. I can watch, and I can remember, because it is interesting for to see what happen with art when it change. And when it is gone I am still okay, I can still make more art. And when I am gone, other people can still make more art, until there are no more people, and no more art. And that is all okay, and I am okay. I will make bookmarks and I will watch them change.
