ROSE GARDEN

Middle Ages’ books of illumination, or illustrated manuscripts, were the apogee of visual intimacy. Because of their relative small size they had to be seen from close, sometimes held in the hands of the viewer. All the features of their characters, the architecture, the flora and fauna, and the landscape in general give an intimate perspective of reality. Through researched gestures, postures, facial expressions, deliberate simplification, and charming distortions, they wrap up the world into a fold of proximity and tenderness. Since both the rubricator (writer) and the miniator (painter) originally used red color (from the Latin ruber, meaning red, and minium, meaning red lead), I make the drawings of the Rose Garden series in red pencil. The repetitive fine red lines creates a pinkish vibration that translates gentle closeness. To enliven the paintings, l use stones and plants that echo the materials used in ancient scriptorium: garnet, turquoise, hematite, tourmaline, tiger-eye, amazonite, indigo, and more. The theme of the rose garden itself comes from the tradition of the hortus conclusus, enclosed garden. It is a sacred space where intimacy and connectedness can happen in safety.