Anecdotal Observatory
The Mark
Work
I want to make a picture that I’ve had
in my mind
for some time.
It looks something like this: it is
a picture of
a figure with
extremely pale hands
and a very white beard
that’s wavy in a funny sort of way
and it has a skeletal face in a way.
Or maybe the figure just is
really pale ---
what I'm drawing is
what I'm cutting away
what I'm cutting away
will be the colour of
the paper. The idea
that you have
has to
be worked
out through
the material.
(English subtitles to YouTube video about the artist Tal R making a woodcut. Line breaks added)
Mark (noun, English): a small area on the surface of something that is damaged, dirty, or different in some way.
Mark (noun, German): Limit, Borderland, March (as in soldiers marching).
Mark Brandenburg (geographical name, German): A historical landscape in nowadays eastern Germany and western Poland. Colloquially the current German federal state of Brandenburg is sometimes called the Mark or Mark Brandenburg, but the Mark no longer exists as such.
Danmark (geographical name, Danish): Flatlanders’ borderland.
Observatory (noun): 1) a building or location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Also, an institution whose primary purpose is making such observations. 2) a situation or structure commanding a wide view.
Anecdotal (adj.): 1) based on or consisting of reports or observations of usually unscientific observers. 2) of, relating to, or consisting of anecdotes. / Anecdote (noun): Apparently origins from the Greek a-, meaning not, and ekdidonai meaning to publish. I.e. unpublished. Most definitions of the word anecdote emphasize that it is a short revealing narrative, focusing on a person or an incident——often amusing, but not necessarily.