The Tracing Project is the creation of abstract portraits through a kind of social performance. I made these works with models, whom I traced with a brush. We wrote poetry as well and often the poetry was put into the work. 

 

In the early spring of 2005 I heard women’s voices speaking about my work in the courtyard outside my house. Upon checking the courtyard I noticed no one there, and wondered as the the origin of these imaginings. They were saying things like  .. . . "He should use color . . " or "He should listen to what we are saying." Then just as suddenly as these Muses began speaking to me, they stopped. There’s no way to describe how I longed for a repeat of their tough, even derogatory, voices. I researched the origins of the ancient Muses. The “Muse” in brief was the grandmother of all the Greek Gods, her nine grandchildren were accorded by the Greeks the power over the various arts, but the original Goddess had power over everything, all creation in fact. I realized that the Muse was simply the shorthand of a male dominated heroic culture (dominated by language and metals) for explaining an archaic past that worshipped the divine feminine. Briefly the Muse was Kali . . . but in Europe.

 

The 'poetry' in my work was my cumbersome and invented way of re-duplicating the 'speakings' of the subconscious Muse whom I had to invite into my ritual performance. I listen for direction as to what I should do with the work. My model listens for direction regarding her life. I perform as the supplicant, she performs the role of Oracle. It's a play that has been well rehearsed. 

 

Sometime after I began this work I became aware of the theory of ritual underlying these performances. I began to research the Yogini cult which prospered in the first millennium AD, in India. As it turns out priests during that period created images of the divine feminine in stone and installed them in enormous circular temples. Each image of the ‘Goddess’ was accompanied by a name, and a sacred position in a grid that was easy to memorize with rhythmic Saskrit shlokas. These grids, Tantric in origin, were conceptually squares, i.e. 8 x 8 or 9 x 9, hence there would be either 64 or 81 sculptures of the goddess in one temple alone.

 

I began to realize that my obcessive tracing of the dancing motion of my models was like the Tantric meditations of these early Hindu priests. How often what we don’t understand originates from something truly ancient, an archetype in fact.

 

My work with the Muse continued. . . but in the spring of 2007 I wore myself out and headed to Germany with a sample of the work to show to galleries. When I arrived home I realized I had worked with 81 women. What was I doing. What was I seeking?

 

Since the voices, and the appearance of ‘poetry’ into the work I’ve begun to regard the poetry as the grail of the overall activity. But I now know this not to be the case. The objective was simple really. . . . I was becoming familiar with the feminine in a way that would normally not be possible. I had structured a Tantric ritual for my own edification. This was Tantric to the degree that it meditated upon the divine feminine.

 

It's a very matter of fact ritual, one in which two people, often strangers, conspire to understand a series of words that on the face of it seem arrived at by chance. The amazing thing about it is that any model can work with me and we end up with something that has meaning to both of us.

 

Here is an example of a such a poem written during one of my 'performances' . . . this one was written with Joy Voelker . . . 

 

Imagine dark anger in night...

Through my ear she goes, through our metaphor of life.

Come sweet obsessive masterpiece . . .

Grand King, she sings many songs.

Finds sleepwalking fun, fasts, starts to hurt,

Writing brings best solutions through night,

Worry, pain, and afraid of self . . .

Better laugh, she does see that last free canvas,

It's why she comes.

 

copyright 2007 Mark Potter & Joy Voelker

 

I have often wanted to make these paintings as a performance with others in attendance. Each of the pieces included with this submission were made in 2-3 hours time.

 

I have worked with many models and I consider my relationships with each of them as part of the work. A good painter friend has termed my work a 'social project'. Indeed a lot of the work is about mythology, the subconscious, and healing.

 

The work opened up so many questions and issues that I’ve put it on hold until such time as I broaden my spiritual knowledge. Is it about healing? Certainly at times some of those I worked with, and I myself were able to access sources of pain and work through them. Many who have worked with me have had very positive changes in my life. Is it about dance?

 

Is it about Tantra? Is it about art? Knowing the future? Poetry? So many questions have arisen from this work that I’ve put the work on hold, resolving to learn more or never repeat the same performance.

 

The Gods are not to be taken lightly.