A PALIMPSEST: GOING OVER WHAT WAS

Palimpsest is an expression of the way we experience and then mark time, for instance, the layering of our present over our faded past. The word derives from Latin and Ancient Greek and means "scraped clean and used again." Its concept has been applied to numerous spheres of culture - history, medicine, science, and archaeology.

Most palimpsests known to modern scholars survive on parchment, which was prepared from animal hides. Papyrus or paper, a cheaper and more expendable support for ancient texts than parchment, was unsuited to last through the ages.

Acrylic as a Contemporary Parchment

My drawings started in brush and ink on relatively cheap sketch paper.  Originally done from countless life drawing sessions, I accumulated hundreds of images in line and gesture, often depicting figurative relationships, some intended and others not. To save or preserve these images, I have chosen to recast them from a world on paper to a world of plastic. They are coated in layers of acrylic gesso and gel and paint.  Much heavier than paper, this world sags and wrinkles and creases, even buckles. The application of sand might preserve it, though it certainly roughs the surface further, gives it texture, and, of course, age.