Re: [-empyre-] boundaries, or not

[Glenn Bach <gbach@csulb.edu>]

Stasisfield.com wrote:

> Glenn's sound drawings have been fascinating for me to observe, even 
> though I've only seen a small number of them. The first time I saw one I 
> immediately thought of Cy Twombly -- not in any direct manner, but they 
> seem to have a similar presence that Twombly's works have. I've long 
> been a Twombly admirer (especially his plaster sculptures) although I 
> haven't spent enough time studying his works and motivations...his work 
> always seems to suggest a quiet, abstract feeling of sound, which 
> Glenn's drawings do as well.

The reference to Twombly is very flattering.  I wasn't really thinking 
about Twombly until after I started moving beyond a direct 
cause-and-effect relationship with sound.  While Twombly's work doesn't 
really involve sound directly (other than listening to classical music, 
i.e. Wagner, in his studio, or perhaps hearing sounds from the city or 
the Italian countryside), I have always admired the visceral earthiness 
of his marks and grounds.   I'm reading a monograph on a MOMA 
retrospective of Twombly by Kirk Varnedoe, trying to update my knowledge 
of his life and work.


> Although the line work of Glenn's drawings at times has a somewhat 
> jittery look (which might connote a feeling of agitation or "loudness"), 
> the lines suggest quietly pondered reactions to an outside stimulus (in 
> this case, sound). The line work also suggests a codifying method of 
> cataloging to me, a very personal collection of symbols which are meant 
> to evoke specific memories.
>
> I hope I'm at least somewhat on the right track, Glenn!

Yup!  At least, that's what I'm aiming for.  At one time the sound 
drawings had a direct relationship between quantity and quality of sound 
(loudness, attack, timbre, duration, etc.) with the frequency and 
appearance of the mark.  Now I'm trying to mix it up a bit more, allow 
for a greater number of associational possibilities with different 
marks.  I'm even looking at a microsound type of approach in which I 
isolate different marks as either records of past sounds or scores of 
future sounds, then blowing them up, zooming in on smaller and smaller 
regions . . .

Thanks, John, for the encouraging words.  Only that I could skip work 
and get back to the studio . . .

G.