Collage 217

Chris Chou introduced us to walnut ink the day I made this one, and clearly I am not very skilled at using it! This piece turned out very dark and brooding. That was not the mood of the day! Lynn and I had a wonderful time with Chris that day. It is more about my lack of skill at using this new material. I also used a lot of religious material, a catholic pamphlet of some sort.

In this scene (Volume II, Part Two, Chapter II), Pierre is talking with another Mason about his lack of faith in God.

"With a swelling heart, with glittering eyes, Pierre gazed into the Mason's face, listened to him, did not interrupt him, did not ask anything, and believed with his whole soul what this stranger was telling him. Whether he believed those reasonable arguments in the Mason's speech, or believed, as children do, the intonations, convictions, and heartfelt emotion in the Mason's speech, the trembling of his voice, which sometimes almost interrupted him, or those glittering old man's eyes, grown old in that conviction, or the calmness, firmness and knowledge of purpose which shone in the Mason's whole being and which struck him especially string, compared with his own slackness and hopelessness, in any case he wanted to believe with his whole soul, and did believe, and experienced joyful feeling of peace, renewal, and return to life."

You've got to hand it to Pierre -- he really, really tries to figure it out -- but isn't quite there, yet. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 441-442 of original text
collage, acrylic paint, walnut ink
made 10/1/10