In the studio: canvases await sizing…coat after coat. The way work is done.
And on a work table, these:
I wouldn’t call it “cleaning up” the studio…Baz would never. But he was rearranging things with an eye to reviewing his use of ink without brushes over the past some years. These works are all made with fingers and fingertips, palms, various sides of the hand, wrist, arm even.
The “Hudson River School” (selections from which are in Burt Kimmelman’s recently published book Gradually the World ) is just one series. “Thumbs” (selection in Amerarcana Review, 2013) is another. Unpublished are “Snow Mixed with Rain,” “Waterfalls,” “Hard Stuff,” “Whispers,” “Index,” and many more.
This week, in the course of his rearranging he uncovered “Faces” (dated 2011) seen here.
All these works are done in Higgins ink on heavy, sometimes handmade paper, salvaged as trimmings by SoHo Letterpress Brooklyn, maker of beautiful wedding invitations, and given to him. (Thank you, Anne!) Earlier, more work-a-day papers, were gifts of The Print Center. (Thank you, Bob Hershon.) Of course everything is available for exhibition or publication.