Round Masks and Profiles
The masks in this room are round, or turned sideways. A head drawn as a ring or an oval, with a border of dots or spikes, and the parts arranged inside it: hearts, flowers, spirals and crosses for eyes, and a mouth of teeth that sometimes takes the whole lower half. Twenty-one works, from June 8 to August 19, 2022.
Six of them come from a single day, July 9, when the round mask was found and tried six times in twelve hours. Each of the six has a different pair of eyes. One has a heart pierced by an arrow. One has a flower and a heart together. One has a spiral and a flower. One has an eye like a wheel.
Watch the mouth. In the first mask it is a small open hole with teeth inside. By August it is a jaw of white teeth as wide as the face, and the last mask in the room is a skull with one gold eye.
Two from June
Before the round masks there were two oval ones, a week apart: a gold head with a spiral eye, and a grey skull with a grin.
NNOTB #140
A gold head in a frame of dark teal, drawn in loose loops of pink, blue and yellow line over a painted face. One eye is a spiral, the other is a cross in a box, and the mouth is a small open hole with teeth drawn inside it. Two red bars cross the brow. It is the first work of the mask summer, drawn on June 8, 2022, and it still has a painted face under the line, something the later masks let go of.
NNOTB #143
A grey skull in a grey room, drawn in white and black line with spiky blue lashes, a grin of white teeth and yellow and red bars behind it.
Six in a Day
July 9, 2022. Six round masks in twelve hours, each with a different pair of eyes.
NNOTB #173
A round mask on blue, with a red heart pierced by an arrow for one eye and a yellow flower for the other, a grille of white teeth in a box below, and a border of zigzag and beads around the edge. The face is filled with blue, red and green scribble, and a green coil sits at the lower left like an ear. It is the first of the six, and the arrow through the heart is the one thing in the room that tells a story.
NNOTB #174
Half an hour later, a round mask on teal with a red X in a white box for one eye and a black spiral in a red box for the other, a mouth of white fangs below.
NNOTB #175
A pale blue mask with a border of purple dots, a wheel for one eye, a ringed eye for the other, and a mouth of white bars at the lower right.
NNOTB #176
A round mask on blue with a red heart for one eye and a lilac flower for the other, a bar of white teeth crossing the lower face, and a border of yellow petals.
NNOTB #178
An olive mask with a big blue spiral for one eye and a small red flower for the other, a mouth of white fangs in a red box, and a border of yellow spikes with pink and blue beads. Where the morning's first mask had a heart and an arrow, this one has a spiral so large it fills a quarter of the face, and the flower beside it is pushed up into the corner. The eyes do not match in size, color or kind.
Compare with #173, in this room
NNOTB #179
A dark oval mask with a flower for one eye and a crossed eye for the other, a grille of white teeth, and a border of blue beads inside a ring of black spikes, on a ground of dark teal scribbled with yellow. The last of the six, twelve hours after the first, and the most worked, with 382 recorded strokes. The border is as busy as the face: beads, spikes, yellow loops and a second ring of blue around all of it.
Beams, Hearts and Beaks
July 10 to 27. A beam returns, two hearts make a pair of eyes, a mask grows a beak, and the line loosens.
NNOTB #180
A gold framed head with two glowing eyes, beams pouring from them across the square, a grille of grey teeth and a row of red bars at the bottom.
NNOTB #181
A yellow mask with two red hearts for eyes, a wide mouth of white teeth in a red box, and a black border drawn in one loose loop.
NNOTB #187
A magenta mask with a beak like a bird, a ringed eye at the left and a cluster of yellow dots at the right, a mouth of white and yellow bars, and a border of green beads.
NNOTB #188
A green skull mask outlined in yellow, spiky eyes, a long white nose, red beads down both sides.
NNOTB #192
A green and yellow mask with a black spiral at the upper left and a round eye with a red band across it, a mouth of red fangs and a second mouth of white teeth below.
NNOTB #198
A sketchy face on olive, drawn in black, yellow and orange loops, one dark eye at the left and a ringed eye at the right, a pink spiral on the cheek and a mouth of white teeth.
August Jaws
August 11 to 19. The mouth takes over. Six masks with jaws of white teeth as wide as the face, and a skull to end the room.
NNOTB #217
A round mask on dark blue with a crown of yellow rays, a white flower for one eye and a square with a spiral for the other, and a wide grin of white teeth curving across the lower half. Red zigzag runs down the left side of the grin, and small blue and yellow drops fall beside it. The rays around the edge are drawn as yellow spikes with white beads between them, so the head is a sun.
NNOTB #222
A big round head with a red target for one eye and a triangle with a blue eye for the other, a jaw of white teeth in a red mouth, drawn in black line over yellow and green.
NNOTB #223
A mask with a blue spiral eye and a red square eye, a flower at the right, a jaw of white teeth at the left, and a pale blue bar running down across the face like a strap.
NNOTB #224
A boxy head on red and blue with a green ringed eye and a red ringed eye, a long nose, and a row of white triangle teeth in a black mouth.
NNOTB #226
A brown round mask with a yellow eye and a green eye, blue bars for a nose, and a jaw of white teeth that takes up the whole lower half, with a yellow zigzag running along the bottom lip. Orange flames stand at the top corners. The head is drawn as one thick black ring over soft brown paint. In June the first mask had a small hole of a mouth with teeth drawn inside; here the mouth is the biggest thing on the face.
Compare with #140, in this room
NNOTB #227
A head in profile on red-brown, facing left, with a yellow eye in a box, a black zigzag along the brow, and a mouth of white bars at the lower left.
NNOTB #230
A grey skull with one eye a ring of teal and one a gold target with spikes, a red beam leaving the gold eye to the right, and a mouth of white and black bars. The skull is drawn in white and black line over grey and gold paint, with purple and blue scribble falling through it. It is the last work of the mask summer, drawn August 19, 2022, a few hours after the last square mask.
Closing
The six masks from July 9 were made in one day, and every one of them has a different pair of eyes: a heart and a flower, an X and a spiral, a wheel and a ring. Then look at the brown mask from August, where the mouth has taken over. The eyes were the game in July. By August it was the jaw.