THE BUILDERS
Graphite and watercolor on paper
22 "x30”, 2007 (detail above)
The idea of progress is sometimes measured quite literally by the heights we've achieved. The act of reaching the heavens, in the case of the Tower of Babel, falls comfortably in this category. I drew inspiration from the mini-scene of the builders and engineers in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Tower of Babel painting. They are seen in foreground, bottom left corner chiseling away unbeknownst to their impending misfortune.
left inset:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Tower of Babel, 1563.
Oil on oak panel, 114 x 155 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna
The Builders is the first in a series of drawings that explore historical and contemporary, mythical and empirical architecture that exemplifies this notion progress and destiny of human civilization, even if this can never be measured or foreseen.
There is also tangential reference in the bigger picture to another interest I have, i.e. language and the history of words
