The Sun and the Moon

I recently did a small tribute piece of Alexander Calder. Growing up in the sixties, and having Life magazine delivered to the house, I was aware of Calder. I thought His mobiles were cool. Also recently, but earlier than the other recently I had come across some of His early circus paintings. Being a bit naive (that’s untrained, in art lingo) I wasn’t aware of His earlier work.
Some of You were probably already familiar with His story, after all, He is one of the most successful, and influential American artists of the twentieth century. On the other hand, I being a bit new to this game, and My aforementioned affliction, needed to google Alexander up.
I found that along with thinking His mobiles were cool, and that I loved His circus paintings. He seemed like a nice guy, someone You would have liked to have known. I read that when He was Younger, He was working shipboard off the coast of Guatemala and observed the moon on one horizon, and the sun on the other. He mentioned throughout His life, how that moment had a profound effect upon Him, so I used that in the title of the drawing. In the 20’s when He moved to Paris He created the Cirque Calder, small movable sculptures made of wire and leather, and found objects, that would fit in a trunk. He would travel, and give performances of His circus, and continued showing His circus throughout His life. This circus, and working with wire, led to His early sculptures, and eventually to His mobiles.
Here was a young and struggling artist, that through experimenting with a different medium than His usual , came up with an idea that used His artwork, His love of the circus, that could put a little bread on the table, and led ultimately to His discovering His artistic “voice”. I thought there was a good lesson in there
I thought that sounded like a pretty cool guy. That ,along with His bushy browed, and bejowled presence later in life, got Me to doodlin’ a little, and this sketch was the result. I hope to turn this into a painting sometime in the future. Maybe include some circus reference into the piece. It’s on the list