Eli Bornowsky
Thin Places
CSA, Vancouver, May 2014
A thin place is where the boundary between heaven and earth is very thin. I didn't know the term until today but it works perfectly with Silver Cloud (Seattle) (2013) and Faith Life (Calgary) (2014), as well as emphasizes the thinness of the paper and the thinness of the watercolour marks. Also, a thin place is where I like to go when I draw, and is in part the meditation of looking at the work and also of when I travel and make drawings in hotels.
The New York Times published about thin places in terms of travel destinations. But as an artist it is less about destinations than a meditation on the relation between inner and outer life. Where the Catholics would make a Cathedral as a thin place, I make a tiny flick with my brush.
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Thin Places, Oil and gesso on baltic birch, 2014
A thin place is where the boundary between heaven and earth is very thin. I didn't know the term until today but it works perfectly with Silver Cloud (Seattle) (2013) and Faith Life (Calgary) (2014), as well as emphasizes the thinness of the paper and the thinness of the watercolour marks. Also, a thin place is where I like to go when I draw, and is in part the meditation of looking at the work and also of when I travel and make drawings in hotels.
The New York Times published about thin places in terms of travel destinations. But as an artist it is less about destinations than a meditation on the relation between inner and outer life. Where the Catholics would make a Cathedral as a thin place, I make a tiny flick with my brush.


















