Ferrini Mirror progress report

ferrini is coming into relief. all of the words have died down, now all there is when i work is the landscape of his visage, the materials at hand. i have run out of gold leaf. i have run out of silver leaf. i now work with what i have left of the aluminum leaf and some indigo colors.

and this brings me to my favorite Thurber response to his editor's request for a progress report on his writing: 'well, i have drunk up all of the rum.'

Vincent Ferrini Project

Here's the current progress. Have introduced the silver mirror, refined some of the shapes. Will keep working both sides. It will be backed with thalo green light and gold leaf. I work everything out on the surface. I rarely use preliminary drawings, but, I do use reference material.

Vincent would not look at my unfinished work, whether in words or visuals.

He admonished: the poem comes fully realized, or it is not a poem.

ahem.

I try to leave each day's work 'fully realized', whole in that moment between action and inaction.

Ferrini, beginning

I've had images stuck in my head of the first time I met Vincent Ferrini, almost 30 years ago at a party in East Gloucester. Two white hands came towards my head followed by a blurry white face with the words 'moon face', then a laugh and he disappeared into the dark. This artwork is the beginning of my attempt to document the various intereactions I had with him.

The painting is an 18x24" piece of glass, drawn on the reverse with white china marker and a Sharpie, then layered with egg glue and silver leaf. The egg glue keeps the silver from turning into a mirror. A mirrored layer will be applied after color is introduced and the shapes are refined.

I received an email yesterday that there is grant money available for 6 artists to do public art works based on Vincent's and/or other Cape Ann poets' writing. One must be a member of SeArts to apply. My work is not based on his writing, it is a visual response to his physical 'i am everything' .

I am not a member of SeArts (tight budget: $45 is food and gas for a few days! ouch!), so I will I not apply for the grant.

I will make the work.

Other images:

Vincent driving his red car to Magnolia (I often found him in front of me when I went to my studio).

Vincent battling dry weeds in a little weedy patch in downtown Gloucester (it no longer exists).

The clearest visions: his hands, hat, sunglasses and a jagged little mouth which he held kind of straight and tense when he spoke.