The Basis – Temporary Textures on Rocks

So what is Temporary Textures on Rocks?  I can’t tell you for sure, but here’s my current thinking, which will probably change as I write it out, and I’m going to start with the short thoughts, get them said then deal with the big thought.  (If you think all of the following is artistic BS, I’m not going to disagree.  As a former boss used to call it, “mental masturbation”, but as much as that may be true, it’s also necessary.  Or at least enjoyable.)

It’s a study on texture.  The texture of light through a medium.  The texture of rock.  The texture of whatever is in the water or has come to rest on the rock.  It’s the study of a layer of texture on top of another layer of texture, with other textures mixed in.  It’s a study of the prominence of one texture over another, visually, with the need for the underlying texture, a texture to form the basis.

It’s an exploration of water and rock.  The first I had lots of in the Midwest, but while occasionally I was fascinated by it, water was in the end always there.  In Vegas it’s not, most of the time.  Here it’s fascinating when you get those rare days when you get flowing water.  In Vegas you do have plenty of rocks though, more than anyone would know what to do with, in all kinds of variety.

Temporary Textures on Rocks is an exploration of time.  It’s an exploration of the prominence of a very temporary texture, the texture of light, the texture of light through water, on to a texture with great, but still limited, permanence.  It’s about the speed of change of one thing, water and light, and the slow but wearing, steady change the water brings to the rock.  It’s about how those two are intertwined inexorably and unending-ly.

It’s a study of the the relationship between a very short term, fleeting texture and a much longer term, but ultimately impermanent texture.  It’s the study of their interaction, the interaction they have with other textures and what the mixture of all these textures and shapes create.  What they create in their complementing of each other, and their contrasting.  And how each is ultimately unfulfilled without the other, and they don’t exist without each other.

At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure, but not completely sure, this project, Temporary Textures on Rocks, is about, for me, mortality.  And that’s something I’ve thought a lot about over the past year.

Share this Image on your site or blog with this HTML Code, just click, copy and paste onto your site or blog
<a href="http://www.joshhawkins.com"><img src=http://www.joshhawkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/JH_201003011310_MG_2303.jpg"></a>

Mar 28, 2010 | Categories:Erin, Favs, Infrared, My Family, Nature, Nature Detail, Nevada, Stories, Temporary Textures on Rocks | Tags: Artist Statement, Temporary Textures on Rocks | 1 Comment »