Random Focus

...The Thinker, Auguste Rodin...

How do you work at art? Do you focus on one work at a time? Have many irons in the creative fire?

I’m in the later category; an artist with several projects percolating at any one time.  Every morning when I enter the studio usually one of them will emerge as the winner for the bulk of attention that day.   But, as with a big family they all demand time and careful consideration.  As I enter 2013 I've got three projects underway; along with the usual mess of residency and grant applications, a half written Kickstarter proposal and some documentary video that needs editing for the archive.

Detail of woodcut, I Imagine You, ©William Evertson (for Analogue Narratives)

One project has been ongoing for over three years now.  An artistic collaboration that began as a book discussion evolved around the idea of finishing Rene Daumal's unfinished novel, Mt. Analogue.  In Equisite Corpse fashion we (core group of 6, with another 6 occasional contributors) began to construct the surreal and fanciful ending of this spiritual adventure using mountain climbing as a metaphor. Trading words and images we continue this climb to transcendence with often odd side trails and miscalculation of purpose.

Details of woodcut, trial proof of key block, ©William Evertson (for Analogue Narratives)

Lines of the narrative that go along with the image

I glance down at Fish, who is holding me on belay and find myself nearly blinded. He seems to be evolving the higher we climb. Somehow he seems to be exuding more fishness than I’m used to. I fumble in my rucksack for the glacier goggles to make the glare off his scales a bit more bearable.

“Telepathy is more than a parlor trick,” he shouts up to me, “my scales are actually iridescent and in the thin air their refractive properties are magnified.” 
Damn him, how did he know what I was thinking about?

He continued, “At this altitude with it’s delightful thin air I do believe that I can explain Now.”
I could swear that his lidless eye winked, but that’s impossible.

“Since the past is memory and I’m still imagining tomorrow I must be creating the world as I speak.” “Isn’t that grand, William, I’m creating you”

The next piece in the studio also begging attention also relates to the Mt. Analogue saga.  This is the beginning of a dirigible called Harmony that will play a role in an upcoming chapter.

 Beginnings of the sculpture Harmony, ©William Evertson

Link to the Analogue Narrative Blog


And the final Work in Progress

Fishsongs, the Extinctions, ©William Evertson

This third piece I'm cycling with is also a woodblock print.  This piece will be my largest to date, measuring 22" x 84".  The original image is from my series Fish Songs which appeared in The Billboard Project in Atlanta this fall.

Video version produced by my friend and often collaborator, +Susan Shulman


Atlanta Art billboards from Susan Shulman on Vimeo.


Intended as a series based on ecological catastrophes the first that is in progress is a reference to the rapid melt of polar ice.

Fishsongs, panel carving detail, ©William Evertson

So whether you work one piece at a time or find yourself working with random focus, Cheers to a creative New Year.