In praise of the cracks that appear

As usual, I'm traveling and taking in foreign pavements, grates and the cracks which (happily) predict the impermanence of it all. Ancient Roman roads seem to suggest triumph over time, but if you notice, the tree roots and mossy fissures tell a different story.

Yesterday, at the MACRO Testaccio, I spent time thinking/sketching at the old tables in the courtyard and enjoyed the imperfection of them. Why is the slow breakdown of things so appealing to me? It suggests time, experience and story. There's not much story to be imagined in the shiny plastic tables at the MAXXI, by comparison.

 I have been experimenting with ideas to celebrate the everyday fissures. The happy signs of aging and decomposition that act as a sort of momento mori. It is all impermanent. 

Anyway, I tried a few different things, but decided that pavement cracks and the like require no embellishment. 

Pots

From the archaeology museum, Citta di Marsala, October 2016

Playing with light

After visiting the Hopper exhibition in Rome I've been playing with light. Trying to improve my skill at rendering light on and around different objects. 

I'm still painting pavements and walls, cracks and interstices, and trying to convey something of the alternative universes inherent in these spaces. Minute biomes (usually unobserved) but also the suggestion of something from the other side or some alternative dimension seeping through the cracks. 

I think Hoppers windows-into-rooms achieve a similar impact. The light pours into an interior (various settings) from the sunny outside.