DOUG & MIKE STARN
Absorption of Light
December 6, 2001 - February 2, 2002
Trees are a recording of light; light turned into carbon through photosynthesis. They are containers of comprehensive information and layered knowledge. Web, networks, synapses, like dendritic neurons in the brain. The Sun writes of its complex knowledge and describes itself.
Like a book, a tree is transcribed thought. A scroll can be laid out and read as a single page, like a branch. The pictogram nature of Chinese calligraphy is in relation to the silhouetted form of trees; the layered dendritic branches are in relation to the complexities of knowledge, understanding, memory and imagination. These trees are light written in the calligraphy of the sun.
To encapsulate light within the work, Structure of Thought starts as prints of silhouetted trees that are coated with several layers of wax, a second print on tissue is layered on top of the first, and is then coated with encaustic. A second photograph of a tree is printed on a rare gampi paper that is saturated with varnish, and is then stretched over the first print, creating an almost luminous work.
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 2/5
27 x 23"
(37 x 33" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 4/5
27 x 23"
(37 x 33" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 3/5
40 x 34"
(52 x 46" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 1/3
72 x 60"
(86 x 74" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 2/5
27 x 23"
(37 x/33" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 2/10
15 x 72"
(22 x 81" framed)
MIS and Lysonic prints on Gampi and Thai Mulberry papers with encaustic and wax
edition 1/5
17 x 135"
(26 x 146" framed)
