Moon

Piece Description:

Text: Sophia Kidd

The moon is our connection to the greater cosmos. It exerts a formidable force upon earth. Indeed, water tides come and go in response the moon’s gravity. Betsy Damon’s use of Chinese ink signifies much about Chinese culture that the artist loves, from Chan Buddhism as well as Daoist natural philosophy, to aesthetic principles of calligraphy and painting. The artist also enjoys the practical and material properties of brush painting, with its high degree of sensitivity. It doesn’t seem to need any manipulation, but naturally serves the artist’s body and idea with very little effort. Damon believes that the act of drawing is a kind of training in how to see. Chinese ink has the quality of inviting one to really look, to see into the essence of one’s subject, thus having a direct and originary experience of one’s environment.