"Technical finesse, an open attitude to the creative process, and deeply personal subject matter are typical of the works of Herlinde Spahr"

David Acton in 60 Years of American Printmaking, 1947-2007

Ten Views of Morro Rock

NEW SERIES : 10 large tondos

May - October 2024

Morro Rock (9-16-2024)

I was blind when I first saw Morro Rock. It was nothing but a pile of rocks, a minor mount sitting in the surf at the central California coast. But the third time I saw the same rocky mount, my eyes molted. I thought of Mount Fuji, of Mont Sainte-Victoire, mountains celebrated in art. But here, time had eroded away the pleasing outward features and it laid bare the hard granitic core that had endured for 26 million years. It was the soul of the volcano, solidified, revealed. I was looking at the very source of the creative force.

That night, I wrote the poem "Morro Rock" and envisioned the series "Ten Views of Morro Rock."

                                                       Herlinde Spahr. Notebooks

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"The waking hours of an artist spill over into the night, into the darker hours, when images flash and burn, when the mind escapes from the din of the world.

Small, sketchy and fast, these twenty-four tondos freeze the flitting, nighttime visions with minimal means: lampblack oil, pencil and scrapers on a scratched surface. No narrative, no sequencing, no sense of progressing from beginning to end. Just brief, fleeting visions before they are lost to sight."

Notebooks, July 5, 2023

The Waking Hours # 6