We can pretend that JMW Turner visited Greece. His watercolors of the Acropolis and the Gate of Theseus tell us of his sympathies for Athens. To make those, he studied drawings by artists who had been there. If we want, we can imagine that he visited Marathon. With his back to the bay, he walked toward the plain where the sunset was trumpeting the old battle, Golden grass shone on the Tomb of the Athenians. He could make a watercolor right there.

Or we might ask what he would think if his spirit strayed to Marathon, Texas. It can look just like this.

Oil on Yupo, 26″ x 40″

The trail in this red canyon is long and dusty. At the furthest point, the red rock walls capture a warm, shallow pond, fed by a tiny spring. In the afternoon, we and the birds and dragonflies wade in. The water feeds willows and makes our air feel cool while our eyes are stunned with warm light. In the night, the coyotes drink here. They have run in from the desert, through a gap in the rocks, fresh from hunting jackrabbits.

Maun Elephant

Like most of my collages, Maun Elephant is cut from Yupo and stapled to Yupo. Because glue is not as lasting as a strong pin, I hold the collages together with stainless steel staples. I’m not hiding this process; the staples are undisguised. The colors in these collages come from oil, acrylic, ink, and graphite painted on sheets that were then sacrificed to the scissors. The method of cutting has to be straightforward – continuous and usually counterclockwise around the outside edge of the form. This is drawing rather than surface molding. The open and commonplace manufacture shows. It is not my tricks in performance that matter, it is the way we read the path of the line. If the raw nature of it annoys you, that’s the beginning of enjoying it.

Maun Elephant is in admiration of my friend Debra Stevens and her Elephant Havens project in Botswana.