Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020 - 8:25 p.m.

I bought some fancy pu-erh when I ordered tea last and it’s really really good. Definitely a level up in terms of complexity. Smoky, earthy, natural sweetness.

I finished the book on images, material culture, and enchantment I was reading. It turned out to be a bit too broadly construed for my tastes. There were some things that were spot on, but on the whole it didn’t give me quite what I had been hoping for. I had been hoping for tools to make my artwork more powerful, I suppose. And a rationale behind amulets like the bracelets I made last year.

I guess the most important ideas I came away with were that belief is tied to actions, iterations of behaviors and interactions with objects and embodied routines. And that objects and images of enchantment consist of a mask, a focal image, and behind that mask is a network of associations and entities that give it its power. A powerful focal object will render those things invisible I guess.

For me as an artist I can’t get so distracted by my own focal image I’m creating that I forget that its purpose is as a conduit for the aggregate meaning of symbols. Me as artist, I’m one. Materials. The how. The infrastructure that allowed me to create it. The image itself, what it explicitly evokes, and how it resonates. And what magic these combine to create. How is it most powerfully used.

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