ARTIST'S COMMENTARY (continued)
This is an interpreted rendering of the volcano, "El Misti".
As I first ascended into the Andes, I was struck by the golden mountain pastures, and by the majestic and distant snowy peaks.
I traveled on a rickety bus from Lima to Ayacucho. Ayacucho had been the only destination at the bus station for which a ticket was available in less than three days, so I purchased passage in that direction, just to get out of the city. I had no idea that I was travelling to the heart of a war zone. Ayacucho was the location of Bolivar's last battle to liberate South America from Spain, and the site of the first "Sendero Luminoso' uprising: the home of the "Shining Path" neo-marxists.
My manner of recording the mountains I passed while traveling, was to make small pencil sketches, which had written notes on them about color. Arriving at my next destination, I would set up on a table in my hotel room and use the sketches and notes to create the egg tempera paintings representing what I had recently seen.
"El Misti"
Aug.10, 1987
egg tempera on hand made paper
6 x 8.4 inches