Spas nerukotvornyi

Or, the [Icon of the] Saviour Not-Made-By-Hands. I first saw this most impressive icon in the Uspensky Sobor(Cathedral of the Dormition) in the Moscow Kremlin in 1991.
It has been a favourite ever since, together with the Vladimirskaya and the Saviour of the Fiery Eye.



On this terrible day I found some peace of mind and some consolation in making a first sketch. The result was beyond all expectations. As if my hands had been guided. As if this face drew itself. As if theMan is Coming Around.





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Another bargain

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Transformation

I took the sideboards of our IKEA bathroom cabinet and glued them together, on Tuesday evening.





On Wednesday morning I sawed them to the right dimensions, and added "sponki" to strengthen the board.




In the afternoon I cut out the indentation or kovcheg with a router, hammer and chisel and did lots of sandpapering. A thin coat of linseed oil was applied.



This is going to be an icon board.
Povoloka (cloth) and levkas (gesso) have not been applied yet.



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Dutch Cow

I scrapped my old bike today, as it was beyond repair.


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Wheel of fortune - still that Wheel

Roue de Fortune - Roue à carrillons.
First seen in Koñforzh-Meilar a.k.a. Confort-Meil(l)ars, Finistère/Breizh in 2007

click here for Youtube clip

And then there's Marcel Duchamp's Roue de Bicyclette, of course.

Just a temporary gadget which I made today. I added bells but they can hardly be heard or seen in the clip. The neighbouring children kept moving the Wheel all afternoon, though.


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Mother and Child - Refugees

 

Today - aka Holy Saturday - I made a start on a new work. Or rather, I started what had already started. After I had cleared the bad spots and worms' holes of this piece of oak I suddenly realized it was Her. Not the plaster Virgin but the archetypal Eleousa or Umilenie. The Mother, hurrying, one child on her arm, another, perhaps, well under way.

It's not just the Flight to Egypt, it is so much more. It is the Nakba, Darfur, Pogroms, Vertreibung. So many Mothers trying to protect their children.



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Light in his eyes

Today I made the black in his eyes blacker


And if you look from the right angle you will notice that I also made the light lighter



He's getting more and more iconic.



Nerukotvornyi


The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.
TS Eliot - East Coker



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Nuts

 

Masque du jour

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Green eyes

 

I just can't help associating my Green Man with the oncoming Resurrection. This week..
whan Zephyrus eek with his sweete breeth
inspired hath in every holt and heeth
the tendre croppes...

To me it is just wonderful, adding eyes to a face, to the music of Bach's Matthäus Passion. It's the Man coming around

He knows.



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Raw material

 

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Green Man on Tree Trunk

What are the roots that cluch, what branches grow
out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
you cannot say, or guess, for you know only
a heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
and the dead tree gives no shelter
TWL


The stand which I -rather unexpectedly- finished today

...and here's the Wheel


As all the spokes of the wheel are contained in the nave and the circumference, all things are contained in this Self - Atman
[Brhad-Aranyaka Upanisad II-5:15]


The Mask of the Man is now nearing completion on its tree-stand.
(The leaves still need some finishing)


Click label W092 for a history of this work.
(And for an overview of all the associations which I had while carving.



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