Modern Art | Rockland, ME | 2018
“Heck, I could do that.” Many people view contemporary art — particularly abstract art — as the dots, dabs and dribbles of the unskilled, wannabe artist. You know, someone who can’t draw. Recently, I came to the opposite conclusion while watching a local abstract artist sketch using a waxed charcoal block. Like a big crayon. A dozen quick swipes produced a confusion of lines and shapes that, when held upright for my perusal, coalesced into … whoa … a bird. But not just any bird. These few smudges depicted an angry raven turning to protect a stolen morsel of food, or maybe a cormorant stretching to dry its wings, or … well, hard to say exactly. What was clear, though, was the motion and emotion of a winged creature caught in flux. Not quite a picture of a bird, but of the air surrounding a bird as it whipped into action.
IrwinFoto 