Ely, Timothy. Drawings from the Drawer: Digressions and distances, experiments and follies. Three Drawings, each drawing sold separately. Price per drawing: Colfax, WA 2001
Each drawing, 13 x 10", on Arches paper. There are 5 separate drawings, each with its own cryptic message of cartographic, mathematic and celestial symbols and the artist's invented script. Drawn with ink, graphite and watercolor with some foil stamping; these drawings capture the skyline of dreams; the twilight of imagination. The artist explains: "As my books progress, there is a certain amount of research and play that goes on. There is a delicate set of balances that make up each book and often the success of the finished product is owed to the early workup drawings. There are also some drawings that are done in tandem with the book as amplification of ideas or departures that might simply fit with the design or trajectory of the ideography. Here are my "drawings from the drawer" that contain these mixed messages. Often the paper is treated with a size solution or primed with a colorant to mimic the earlier paper preparations. The drawing and painting materials are standard and traditional but occasionally there will be departures into more contemporary pigments and mordants." For book artist Timothy C. Ely, what is revealed is as important as what is concealed. Using a variety of traditional methods for his books and prints, Ely's narratives are often written in an imaginary language. His books are owned by the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Modern Art, Harvard University, the University of Iowa, Columbia University and others. Drawing #1. Brown ground with concentric circles with Ely's code "writing" in white, highlighted in gold gilt, with red, blue, yellow, green. Drawing #2. Graph grid hand drawn with black circles (flying saucer?) with yellow, red, blue, green highlighs. Drawing #3. Palm tree (?) in charcoal against background of tans (sand?) on one side and blues on the other, Ely's code "writing on lower half forming triangle pointing toward center image. Drawing #4. Black and white code writing along bottom quarter, dark black circles highlighted with red, yellow, blue-green, blind-stamped circles making raised surface. Drawing #5. Black, white and grey images of ghostly flying machines and targets.
$US700
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