Painting/ Fresco Work

This body of work explores fresco on a flat surface, either paper or board, with incised lines and drawing. Mineral pigments and paint are added along with paper collage type images. The nature of the materials dictate the type of images I can produce whereas the time limitations and surface characteristics become inherent in the final product. The images come directly from my everyday ordinary experience and interests, and become a metaphor for such. I will write, draw, gather photos, and reduce this into a symbolic synthesis. I wish to push the thinking process along at a good rate and develop images seeded from earlier work, yet looking forward.

My time spent drawing the human figure has led to an interest in the carved masks of indigenous peoples of the world. I find these sculptural forms of the face to be fascinating in their makeup. They are classical forms that exist within a population, to represent all forms of human nature and culture. There are the captors and conquerers, the priest and the shaman, the king and princess, lawmen and the foolhardy, etc., all good stuff for storytelling.
I often seek out the architecture of objects that exists, in a subtle way, just below the surface of normal reality. The exploration of everyday objects as living things imbued with an energy of their own holds a fascination for me. There is also a narrative theme and a historical connection between man and myth that interests me. I study the symbolic forms this relationship has produced, whereas the unknown is brought into a relation with the "known". There is also a humorous side to all this that helps temper the serious.

Michael Sharber
3/4/2009

This body of work began with the discovery of Archeological work done by E. B. Saylee during the 1930's. He did a most interesting study of the Hohokam culture in Southern New Mexico and Arizona and published his findings in "Archeological Studies in Southwest Arizona". He produced a series of drawings showing his postulated floor plans of their homes and public meeting areas. These Native Americans lived during the time of the Anazazi, yet their homes and villages were very different. This difference comes from the building materials available to them in that geographic area. Whereas the Anazazi used stone as their principle building material, the Hohokam used waddle- a combination of mud and sticks over a wood skeleton, to produce substantial buildings. This organic approach resulted in the buildings melting back to the earth as time slowly passed. Mr. Sayle excavated these sites to discover their identity and construction methods.

As an artist and building designer, I was struct by the beautiful organic shapes of the Hohokam floor plans, something akin to viewing ameobas under a microscope. Their building materials, although not long lived, afforded them the design flexibility to make these wonderful shapes. As an artist I wanted to explore these shapes, and in that way, get to know these peoples.

About this same time I came across an article proclaiming an extraordinary archeological find in Veracruz, Mexico, with Olmec connections. This became known as the Cascajal Text and represented the earliest know writing in the Americas. It was a stone tablet with some 62 glyphs carved into the surface representing food, architecture, and artifacts of culture. It seems these people had record keeping and accounting. As I read the scientific assessment of this find I was bothered by the lack of some humanity in all this. I decided to explore these symbols as an artist, not a scientist, and learn by drawing them, as a way to know the makers.

The Hohokam and Cascajal forms soon joined each other and my personal search began to learn more about these peoples that predate me in the Americas.