October Flying Carpet 2020

 In October,
The Flying Carpet
attempts to navigate 
“The Cloud of Unknowing”
during this incredible time of
so many overlays 
of truth and falsehoods.

Images of palimpsest come to mind

Traditionally palimpsest referred to
a manuscript or writing fragment 
on which the original writing 
has been partially removed
to make room for later writing 
but with original traces remaining.

Now a palimpsest can be…
something reused or layered
but still revealing visible traces
like these walls in Nara, Japan

A palimpsest of billboard messages
subsumed in time

Or the message implied
by what remains visible

The forces of nature
obscuring a graveyard memorial

or autographs of men
fighting in Algeria…
a palimsest of
person superimposed upon place

…and history juxtaposed
with the present…
So many sailors from distant lands
waiting with their goods
quarantined on San Lorenzo,
“The Plague Island” off  Venice…
a palimpsest of their scrawls

“Before I Die' 

is a global wall art project…
originally created by Candy Chang
on an abandoned house 

in New Orleans
after the death of a loved one.
There are now
 over 5,000 of these walls 

around the world.

A Momento Mori 

for the modern age...
This one becomes an inscrutable
palimpsest in North Carolina

A memory moment
captured in reflection palimpsest

Summer Fall Winter Spring,
my journal for the year 2008…
layers of daily drawings
on translucent mylar...
fan shaped segments...
hermetic images
approximating the way
events can float
to the surface of memory

With heartfelt love to all...

 

Thanks to Sialia for making

the excellent box 

for Summer Fall Winter Spring