Convergence: 2002

The Convergence series was done in 2002 in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México. There are twenty images in the series, a numbered series with no titles: 50″ X 24″ paper size and 46″ X 20″ image size. All are done on Stonehenge paper with chapaopte (tar) and oil pastels, with spray enamels used in some of the images. They are vertical images that followed immediately after I completed the Roland’s Friends 2002: Aztec Deities Series done earlier in the year. These too are vertical and of the same size and use chapapote, too.

I hope that I am not misnaming this series “Convergence”; a coming together, as this would disappoint me, even depress me. 2002 is a ‘signature year’ for me. And the Aztec Deities and Convergence series can be shown as one exhibition as 2002 A Signature Year. However, I believe that I will most likely show the “CONVERGENCE: 2002” as a single show, and display the Roland’s Friend 2002: Aztec Deities as another show.

Why call this exhibition Convergence? Why Twenty?

Both questions are difficult to answer as they may become academic. As I often work in series, I am not surprised that this body of work is also a series and a numbered series. Twenty is a magical number in México, as is fifty-two, thirteen and seven. I tried dealing with ‘twenty’ in another set of work, called “The Count of Fate”. The number came back to me as I began the Convergence Series. Historically, twenty was important to many Central Americans. This is the number of fingers and toes on a human bring, and in the Indian language the number “twenty” is descriptive of a person, a complete person.

In the work done for “CONVERGENCE” I still find much that has been derived from Mexican mythology. Some images are abstract, gestures with a bare hint of a figurative representation. Some images are clearly figurative abstract. While the “Count of Fate” series was twenty diptychs, these are single imprints. They appear, when shown as a group of twenty to be concerned with communion and the ‘art of communion’.

A visit to the Internet and a search for ‘convergence’ results in some interesting hits. I thought that the article by Gregg Easterbrook in “Wired” magazine was of some interest and I recommend it as a read. Also, see:“Convergence” for research and high scholarship. These articles and websites do not answer my search for myself, for that is really what is at issue in this collection. They are not individual works. To be sure, you can hang one on your wall, or two or more. They can stand alone, not needing another for support. But, the doing of all twenty was what I had to do to make ‘me’ a ‘complete person’. As in the Aztec calendar, ‘twenty is magical and is magical in “CONVERGENCE”, for it represents the “complete person”.