November 11, 2003
IT WAS WORTH IT
It Was Worth It, 2000, by Jerome du Bois. Painted and stamped wood, encaustic on bristol board, acrylic, and 140 pencils. 16 x 52 x 2 inches.
I first realized this idea in 1972. Back then it was a pair of old shoes whose soles I had pierced with hundreds of double-pointed pencils, so they penetrated into the shoes and stood on tiptoe about eight inches off the ground. I clear-sealed the interiors, filled them with water, and placed them on a nicely polished oak board on which I had carved the title: IT WAS WORTH IT.
Lifetimes have come and gone since then, haven't they? These are the phrases I stamped into the blue border above:
TANSTAAFL -- Bittersweet A Bettersweet -- To Know And Not To Do Is Not To Know -- Anger Is Fear's Fierce Face -- Long To Belong -- Ecstastigmata -- Only Connect: Halves Have No One -- Seek Your Actual Size -- Men Torment Or Mentor Men -- Can't Rant That Cant -- Irony is Passé: Embody Delight.
And one from Emily Dickinson: The Soul Has Bandaged Moments.
It is worth it. -- JdB
Posted by Jerome at November 11, 2003 10:20 AM | TrackBack