September 16, 2011
October Art Exhibit at City Center

Reception: Fri, Oct 7, 5:30-7:30pm
City Center Art Lounge, 300 Page Street, SF

Artichoke by FThompson

Artichoke; 27" X 27", ink on paper

Fran Thompson – Hey! Vines and Creepers!
October 1-31

Artist Statement

All these twisty black lines and smudgy shadows draw my brush onto the paper. The fun part is sitting outside on the dirt, with ink, water, and colors scattered inconveniently all around, staring at the edges and spaces with my eye and brush, hardly looking at the paper. It’s done all at once, no hesitation, no going back and fixing things. I get what I get. Some pages get dumped. Here are some that worked. If I put what I’m up to into words, I’d say – my aim is to combine my deep commitment to the actual forms of life on Earth with the calligraphic abstraction of the brush line.

Along about 1200, old Ju-Ching said, “Hey! Vines and creepers! Vines and creepers!” Was he referring to the tangled lineage of Zen? Being literal, I went out to look at vines and creepers.