The Angel is in the Details

The thing I love most about creating art is the way it transforms my interaction with the world: it demands full attention. When I studied drawing as an adult, I was astonished at the details I suddenly saw – I recalled finally getting eyeglasses and discovering that those trees all had stunningly individual leaves, each perfectly crafted to resemble one another. When I sketch something, my connection to it shifts fundamentally: I might choose a subject because I like it, but by the time I’ve lavished attention on it, I’m usually in love with it. This meditative process of lavishing attention brings things alive for me. The aliveness then seeps out, engulfing the world at large, and slowing me down to the pace of experience. Margarita Bratkova created some beautiful detail in this, her first print in her first linocut printmaking class. I’m particularly smitten with the fine work she did on the fence: what might have been merely sticks in the ground become the haunting fence of an ancient, vaporous cemetery. Perhaps they are something else altogether for you. The angel is in the details.

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