About

What's this blog about?

This blog was created to help document my exploration of the concept of taxipathy, this documentation most often consists of sketches, short writing and photography.

What's "taxipathy"?

the simple answer:

Taxipathy is a neologism I came up with in the autumn of 2007 to describe the work I had been making. It is a combination of the Greek words taxis and pathos and is comparable to the word taxidermy. While taxidermy is (in general terms) the reconstruction of a deceased animal, taxipathy is the reconstruction and representation of emotions elicited from or associated with a past event.

What's an "astral mezzanine"?

the simple answer:

Without getting caught up in discussions about planes of existence and other related concepts, I use the term astral mezzanine to describe the place from which we observe things such as daydreams. When you are unconscious and dreaming you are most often immersed in the dream, but when you are conscious and daydreaming you are most often observing from a different perspective. You might compare this relationship to something like the difference between riding the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls and watching it from an observation deck. An astral mezzanine is what I would consider the observation deck of the mind.

What's up with these drawings?

the simple answer:

None of these drawings are actually of something, though they are about something. What I'm doing is a kind of influenced automatic drawing. I lead myself to a place in my mind (astral mezzanine) and then begin drawing in a natural and uninhibited way without actually concentrating on what's being drawn. The resulting sketch is a representation of the act of thinking/remembering/experiencing emotions (taxipathy), you might consider it to be a sort of mental seismograph.