Escalante II, oil on panel, 10 x 10 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor
Music is a big part of the creative process for me. I usually listen to the same piece of music over and over again while working on a particular painting or series. For these paintings, I chose to listen to "The Origin of Fire," a medieval chant by Hildegard von Bingen and performed exquisitely by the group Anonymous 4. The repetition -- not only from the structure of the chant, but also from the whole piece of music -- reminds me of the temporal structure of the grid itself; the repetitive process of creating each small rectangle while at the same time engaged with the whole image as a thoughtfully considered composition. The music surrounds me and inspires the contemplative atmosphere such work demands.
Escalante III, oil on panel, 10 x 10 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor
The Escalante region of Canyonlands, Utah, is the inspiration for these paintings. It is my favorite place on earth. I love watching the sun rise and set over the mysterious red rock formations, and being so far away from any other living human, I drink in the silence and solitude. It is my heaven. My grid paintings are a distillation of the landscape into a living, breathing object of its own -- in this case, the red rocks, the silence, the fragile desert plants, the footsteps of mountain goats and chipmunks.... Sleeping in that wilderness brings my attention into utter harmony with the fact of life on earth and the mysteries that lie beyond the glittering stars.
Escalante IV, oil on panel, 10 x 10 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor
"And I -- a human being neither afire
in my form with the strength of strong lions
nor familiar with their exhalations,
but constrained by the fragility of the weak rib
and flooded with mystical inspiration --
saw something like the most brilliant fire,
incomprehensible, inextinguishable,
all alive, and all filled with life,
having within itself a flame the color of air."
-- Hildegard von Bingen, Vision 1: The Fire of Creation,
from The Origin of Fire
in my form with the strength of strong lions
nor familiar with their exhalations,
but constrained by the fragility of the weak rib
and flooded with mystical inspiration --
saw something like the most brilliant fire,
incomprehensible, inextinguishable,
all alive, and all filled with life,
having within itself a flame the color of air."
-- Hildegard von Bingen, Vision 1: The Fire of Creation,
from The Origin of Fire
2 comments:
Interesting that the grid lines are red. i like the fire/red touches behind the white.
i know both Hildegard's music and the Anonymous 4 which I no longer own.
your words on solitude interest me. Do you camp there? I have never camped and am curious to learn how. Although as someone said to me "what's to learn?"
congrats on your book. i'll check it out.
Hi Suki, thanks for reading about and looking at the new work. Yes, I camp there, outside of Canyonlands (on BLM land actually) in a place that takes a couple of hours over sand and rocks (no roads) to get there. Sublime. And there is stuff to learn when you camp, so you should go with a friend who's done it before. It is great fun when you are prepared with a good tent, a solar shower, and good wine!
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