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2003-08-22 - 11:06 a.m.
On my way to work yesterday I was thinking a lot about bridges and doors... and masks too. It started off as a internal monologue about making a painting that showed a transformation from functional, square, logic, to organic, curving and mystery. The initial idea came from me drawing in my sketchbook, and suddenly really looking at the shape of the subway seat in front of me. I noticed how it combined organice shape with functionality so that it was more comfortable for a body to sit in. Then as I was thinking about this transformation idea, I looked out the window at the Williamsburg Bridge (usually I look out the other side at the Brooklyn Bridge, but this time it was Billy B). I thought about the mystery of bridges. How it connects a known place to an unknown place. How it always had trolls underneath and goats going over to greener pastures. The connecting thing really got to me though. Connections are fascinating. A bridge over water (which in itself is fairly mysterious). A door between rooms. A door from outside to inside. An entrance to an underground space. Sometimes these connecting elements are decorated, but sometimes they're very plain. And these connecting items are interesting in that a person can go through or over them to the other space. Windows aren't meant to be entrances or exits (though they sometimes function as such under duress). So now it's doorways/doors and bridges for me. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it's interesting.
Oh... also, because doorways and bridges are the connecting element, they aren't really part of either space, or rather they're part of both spaces, but aren't really owned by either side.
The funny thing is that Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere was about doorways and bridges and spaces that aren't really set in one place necessarily, or rather spaces that have disappeared or been moved or something along those lines. Interesting how only recently has it become something to wrap my mind around a bit.
