Darren Lyons
acrylic, water, sparkling water, and vodka on canvas board; text on cardstock
Dice-Roll Variations is a series of painted drawings and poetic captions, inspired by the Abstract Expressionists, New York School poets, and John Cage’s chance operations, created from a ruleset that orders, but does not strictly govern, the resulting works. The viewer can experience them as she or they or he wishes, without influence. Listen to your thoughts as you view them.
Ruleset: Over the span of twenty days, once per day, make six marks with cheap paint on a new canvas board, every day, in the style (loosely) of the painters you love. For each mark, roll a die: 1 = white, 2 = black; 3 = green, 4 = yellow, 5 = blue, 6 = red. On each day of painting, write a numbered section, six six-syllable lines of a twenty-day poem that reads like a daybook/journal about each day’s painting. Include dreams, memories, observations, quotes, etc. For each text section, randomly select a number between 1 and 81: find the chapter in the Tao Te Ching that corresponds to the selected number and include at least three words from that chapter in that day’s section.
truth divided by booze
is the universe,
says the drunk with two dimes
to rub together tight,
mouth shut around the top
of a dumb bottle hard.
i see with the red eye
of a saint, cry from up
above. behind the pane
of glass, we watch the way
others act and wonder
if we’ll ever see one another.
undefined, star-spangled,
he reaches for unknown
prices paid, each to each,
day after day, and the
gentle rain always wets
his atmosphere down, drenched.
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