New Drawing: Babel

Babel. Ink and graphite on illustration board. 40″x10″

Sneak peak of new drawing: Babel

This is part of an old drawing from early 2014 which I wasn’t satisfied with and which has been tucked way in an unused corner of my studio. Recently I’ve developed some new techniques involving graphite over ink and I thought I’d try to breath some new life into this drawing. The working title is Babel.

Part of Babel, a 40″x10″ drawing. Ink, gouache, and graphite on illustration board.

Nimrod’s Blueprint

Nimrod’s Blueprint. Ink on Watercolor Paper. 11″x15″ Jacob Rowan 2015

Nimrod was the architect of Babel. This is a sort of postmodern blueprint into his thought process. It is not a linear schematic, but rather a collection of interrelated images and symbols charting the thoughts and plans of the architect of Babel.

“The Plains of Shinar” and the “Tower”

The Plains of Shinar: Construction, Theophany, and Desolation (Shinar was where Babel was built)

I have been involved in an ongoing collaboration with the composer Dr. Andrew Sauerwein for over a year to illuminate the Tower of Babel narrative along with T.S. Eliot’s Choruses from the Rock. On February 28th Dr. Sauerwein gave a Composition Recital featuring highlights from his last 25 years of composing. One of those compositions was Tower, a piano piece written alongside the above drawings, which was performed by my lovely wife, Megan Rowan. Below is a video of that performance. We were not trying to literally recreate the events already described in story, but rather create art that captures the mood and sense of the story: art that illuminates rather than illustrates.

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/121032165″>Tower</a&gt; from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user18870526″>Jacob Rowan</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

New Drawing: Study of the Desert

Study of the Desert. Ink on watercolor paper.

A drawing study to continue exploring the imagery of the desert and the Tower of Babel.

Preview of a New Drawing

Detail. Ink, Graphite, and Coffee on Watercolor Paper

Detail. Ink, Graphite, and Coffee on Watercolor Paper

Some details from a new drawing illuminating the Tower of Babel.

Copyright Jacob Rowan 2015

Texture Studies for a New Drawing

Various studies for “Nimrod’s Blueprints”

I’m working on a new drawing to illuminate the Tower of Babel called “Nimrod’s Blueprints.” There may be several drawings in this vein. The drawing will be similar in style to the drawing on the homepage of my website. It will be a kind of postmodern blueprint–a kaleidoscope of connected images without a narrative structure that focuses on the interplay of individual elements.

Edit March 2015: See the completed drawing here

Dispersed

Hand ground Sumi ink, coffee, tea, oxide ink, blue acrylic ink, and bottled Sumi ink on watercolor paper. 3.5″x15″

Graphite and hand ground Sumi ink on watercolor paper. 3.5″x15″

Hand ground Sumi ink, coffee, and graphite on watercolor paper. 3.5″x15″

More from my Tower of Babel/Choruses from the Rock series. I created these drawings as I began to consider what it means to be dispersed after Babel. Connected to that idea of dispersion and desolation is the line from Choruses, “Their only monument the asphalt road/And a thousand lost golf balls.”

To disperse means to distribute or spread over a wide area, or to cause to go in different directions or to different destinations.

More Vignettes from the Desert

Ink and Graphite on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

More 5″x11″ experimental studies exploring imagery from the Tower of Babel and Choruses from the “Rock.” See my earlier post for more details.

 

Click on image for a larger view. All images copyright Jacob Rowan 2014

Vignettes from the Desert

Ink on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

Ink on Watercolor Paper

For some time I have been working on a collaboration with a composer to illuminate the Tower of Babel and T.S. Eliot’s Choruses from the “Rock” through art and music. One is the story of man building a city and tower for his own glory and the other is a story of man’s struggle to build the church of God. In my reading and contemplation of these two texts I have become fixated with the image of the desert. The desert left after God dispersed the people of Babel is the same desert we live in today in which some are trying to rebuild Babel and in which others are trying to build the church. As Eliot says “The desert is in the heart of your brother.” These are 5″x11″ experimental studies I have been doing to explore that imagery.

Click on image for a larger view. All images copyright Jacob Rowan 2014