STONE OBSESSION

I suddenly became obsessed with stones. Standing stones, to be exact. In the Volubilis site in Morocco.

As I was walking thru the ruins, I suddenly became fascinated with large stones that were still standing as part of the original structures. Most of the stones were near what used to be doorways. They might have formed the door openings to a residence, for example.

Once I started taking photos of these stones, it became all consuming. First, there were many examples. Second, I then had to take photos from two opposite sides so I could draw them transparently.  Two photos of one such stone are shown.

The stones reminded me of, say, artifacts from a prehistoric civilization. I kept thinking of OTEIZA.

They were simple, beautiful and powerful. I just kept thinking that there has to be some sort of form generation inspiration in these pieces. I wouldn’t mind if I built a building that looked like my watercolor.

Before I had Transparent Drawing as a mindset, I most likely would have looked at the stones, and then gone on my clueless way.  Without Transparent Drawing, what would I have done, draw them representationally?  With Transparent Drawing, I suddenly had a mission.  I had to take photographic record of the stones because I knew I was going to draw them at some point in the future.