Shroud

“Shroud No.2”, Oct. 2009
acrylic and cut corrugated cardboard, 16 x 20”

Shroud”, Oct. 2009
acrylic and cut corrugated cardboard, 16 x 20”

My boss looked at me quizzically as I inspected the shredded cardboard packing material from a box of new inventory, “What… what is it?” she asked. “I think I want to paint on this.” I replied. It stretched out when I pulled at either side of the section I’d plucked from the box, and I was playing with it! I’m certain she thought I was nuts as I tugged at the material, examining it’s qualities, imagining it’s possibilities.

The shredded cardboard lay in a pile on my work table for some time, as I continued to scrutinize it- then in a hurry one night I started cutting and arranging it atop a piece of cardboard being carved simultaneously, the patterns carved so that the shredded cardboard to be hot glued above revealing some of what was below. That layered, partially covered nature in my assemblage gave me the title “Shroud”, the word by definition: a cloth or sheet in which a corpse is wrapped for burial. I have seen some death this year, certainly- the older I get, the more I see it seems. Just today my pal Rudy called from New Mexico with news that his brother Bob had passed, my grandmother passed last winter, and my pal Kevin died three years ago, yesterday, as well. People die and we miss them because humans are fragile, divine, and special.

While the finished pieces are black and somewhat menacing, I hadn’t thought of this much while I played with my newfound material, I played like a child who just discovered something unusual and fun! I know they will be largely unappreciated and likely unsaleable, but for me they are a real breakthrough: completely non-objective art focused on materials and texture, a purity I have struggled to achieve since I saw the Action/Abstraction Show at the St. Louis Art Museum a year ago has been achieved in my mind. I have an acquaintance or two-dozen that feel like abstract art is baloney, but it’s much more complicated to create, explain, argue, appreciate, and evaluate than most people have the intellect or imagination to entertain. There is a lot that of abstract work that is poorly done, and there is a great deal that is sublime and transcendent: sorting Fine Art from the Emperor’s New Clothes is a confounding, and sometimes convoluted business. Some have the Magic Touch, and others just don’t, although as my brother says, “There is no accounting for taste".


The shredded inspiration in question...


Snikety Snik, Sucka! I’ll CUT YA!


A handmade bamboo tool I fashioned back in ceramics class at the University works GREAT for detailing my cut cardboard paintings... those tools are the most valuable, crafted for a particular task. This "little friend" came in handy later on in my art making!

Laying out “Shroud No.2” prior to hot gluing...

Painting “Shroud”, stapled down to my workboard: