I woke up this morning to over six inches of snow here in Denver. I have a bit of a break from work but my eyes were wide open at 6:30 am like a kid on Christmas morning. I took the dog out for a walk and came home with the urge to share some of my favorite snow related artworks with you.
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From the book, It Looks Like Snow. Remy Charlip, 1957.
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The book above was a picture book tribute to John Cage by Remy Charlip. It's a twenty-four page book with beautifully illustrated depictions of snow as seen above. For those unable to see the snow, here are a few more wintery works for you:
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| Everything that stands will be at odds with its neighbor, and everything that fails will perish without grace. Robyn O'Neil, 2003. |
Robyn O'Neil's large scale drawings often use the backdrop of snow, a quiet, desolate place full of meaning, emotion, and signifiers of her family, friends, and personal experiences. This tiny picture won't do this piece justice so I recommend visiting her
website where you can find out where to see this work in person..... big, big drawings, I'm talking seven by twelve feet wide. Her work so obviously reminds me of Bruegel. It's that rounded Dutch winter contrast, moody, cold and gray. With tiny deliberate figures and details that you may miss if you don't spend some time really looking.
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| Hunters in the Snow. Pieter Bruegel, 1565. |
Snow may have a mood, it certainly has a sound. Snow brings a muffled quiet that centers inside your ski hat or jacket making you aware of your breathing. It reminds me of hours and hours of building snow forts, snowmen, and snow balls; of sledding, falling, and skiing. Snow may be one of the only weather events that not only brings out the sublime in terms or beauty and temperature, but also properties of play. For that reason the following works are some of my favorites.
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| Snowball Track. Richard Long, 1964. |
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| Snowball drawing. Andy Goldsworthy. |
In Michigan I was able to see a different snowball drawing by Mr. Andy Goldsworthy in person and amongst all of the amazing contemporary works of art that Maxine and Stuart Frankel have collected throughout the years it was one of my favorites. At first glance I thought it was a giant spit bite aquatint until I realized it was the remains of a melted snowball; simply dirt and water outlines so simple and beautiful.
And perhaps it is the way that snow seems to simplify the world with its blanket of snowflakes covering all of our industry and commerce lumping it into simpler, larger shapes that makes me love snow so very much. It slows us down, quiets our lives, and gives us an untouched material in which to kick up, form, walk through, play through or simply watch sparkle away from us again and again.
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| Snow Flurries. Andrew Wyeth, 1953. |
