ELI DINER
painting and printmaking
IN FIRST BODY
A painter paints himself from a mirror.
He sees an image and thinks how to draw,
Using which materials, in what size.
Small, intimate, with small hand movements
In life-size
Or larger than life.
What to draw
The whole figure, or part of it, cutting the image
How to draw
In one quick strong swoop, close to the paper
Draw the body with the whole body
Or from a distance
To measure and examine
To dim the line with a blot or to cut the blot with a line
To erase, to emphasize, to photograph or to understand, to interpret
Or once this way and once that way and again
It’s all part of the process, of creating the work
Sometimes running, sometimes checking,
Sometimes breaking through and sometimes closing in,
Sometimes erasing and sometimes retaining what is left.
A painter enters into the mirror and is a stranger to himself
Eyes that examine eyes that return the gaze
And examine
A moving figure, a still figure.
A thinking figure, a feeling figure
Asking: that’s how I look, that’s how I work, that’s how I feel?Asking: what’s renewed, what’s gotten old, what’s funny?
One hand draws moving incessantly
Breaking beyond the boundaries of the mirror
Unseen
But this is the hand that exists for real.
E.D.
Dec. 1997