SIDEREAL SILENCE: IRISH STUDY
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #16 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 152 x 92 x 4 cm | private collection
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #1 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 92 x 66 x 4 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #5 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 178 x 122 x 4 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #2 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 184 x 127 x 4 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #9 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 184 x 127 x 4 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #12 + #13 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, raw cotton canvas | 152 x 92 x 4 cm (x 2)
(right) Quintessence #9 | 2014 | 24kt gold leaf, cultured crystals on plaster cast from Irish milky quartz | 16 x 16 x 16 cm
(right) Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #38 | 2015 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, arches paper | 61 x 46 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #37 | 2015 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, mica, rainwater, egg, nikawa glue, tree resin, arches paper | 61 x 46 cm
(center) Quintessence: Callixylon Newberryi | 2016 | cultured crystals on ca.350-million-year-old late Devonian petrified wood fragment from Callixylon Newberryi (the earliest tree) | 22 x 10 x 10 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #35 | 2015 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, arches paper | 36 x 26 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #36 | 2015 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, soot, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, arches paper | 36 x 26+26 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #42 | 2016 | cultured crystals, ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #40 | 2016 | cultured crystals, ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #45 | 2016 | cultured crystals, ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #46 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #47 | 2016 | cultured crystals, ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #43 | 2016 | cultured crystals, ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #41 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
Sidereal Silence: Irish Study #44 | 2016 | ca. 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil dust, turf ash, calcium carbonate, magnesium silicate, mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, tree resin, archival acetate, plexiglas, wooden frames, hinges | 50 x 84 x 3.5 cm
SIDEREAL SILENCE: IRISH STUDY
(Sidereal: [sī-'dir-ē-l] of or with respect to the distant stars. Determined by the stars.)
supported by: U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery / Aronoff Center for the Arts), Cill Rialaig Project, Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation | special thanks: Noelle Campbell-Sharp
This winter for six weeks on the southwest coast of Ireland, working in direct collaboration with the natural elements, I sought to make visible that eternal flow of life. Painting outdoors on raw cotton canvas with 450-million-year-old Cincinnati strata fossil dust, turf ash (young fossil material), mica, rainwater, nikawa glue, and tree resin, or working on acetate where crystal formations coalesce in nebula-like imagery, I made works that manifest the strata of time, submission to the elements, and the yielding of artistic control. In these paintings which could have been created nowhere else, the conversation with nature intones layers of sediment and stone, the fall of rain, the path of the wind, and the swath of the haze of the Milky Way.