Within the Palimpsestic Landscape - from Cheryl Penn

[Marie Wintzer]

This is (again) one of my favorite pieces by Cheryl. It is a reference to the Novgorod Codex, a hyper-palimpsest containing dozens of texts written over ten/twenty years in the late 10th century, each of them written on top of the previous one. The palimpsest itself is of mixed media: wood, wax, paper? (I'm not sure), and almost certainly soil. Among the myriad of texts contained in the Codex we can find the “Spiritual Instructions from the Father and the Mother to the Son”, which was Cheryl's inspiration for "The World Is A Town" art book. The whole piece is a trip Within The Palimpsestic Landscape, earthy layers of thick paper, warm strokes of ocher and grey paint, a delicate layer of asemic writing on transparent paper representing the fragile layers of wax, and.. wax itself. Oh yes, and Cheryl's signature red stitches as a unifying thread. The last page ends with the word Without, leaving it open to the addition of new layers? It was really fun to take pictures of this extremely photogenic landscape, I was late for work because I couldn't stop. I hope they convey all the fantastic textures and tones of this piece of art. Thank you Cheryl!

[Marie Wintzer]

Thanks for your nice comments everyone, this work really deserves it. Yes, the texture and colors of the "soil" are rendered really well, it is a true archeological journey. I'm lucky to have a good camera, because I'm sure this piece wouldn't come out nicely from the scanner.

[Jen Staggs]

I once read a book called "Lucy" about the archeologists who discovered the Lucy skeleton.  They talked about walking around the African landscape and just picking up bones right out of the top layer of soil- millions of years old, just lying there in the dusty dirt.  This reminds me of that African landscape (that I've never seen).

[Jen Staggs]

Absolutely brilliant.   I wish I could watch Cheryl make this- I imagine it to be a messy process, as many of the best works are.  Off to go research Novgorod.  And I really appreciate the close-up photos - we get a better sense of the tactile nature that way. Plus I'm envious. My cruddy camera doesn't focus that well. 

[Karen Champlin]

Beautiful piece.  I am drawn to both the muted colors and the textures. Bravo Cheryl.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Beautiful palimpsesto, Chery! παλιμψέστο! And beautiful blog, Marie! Look how a glow of light comes through those stitches...it is wondrous!