Scribbled Heads
Heads buried in line. In this room the face is drawn, and then drawn over, until it sits inside a tangle of colored scribble like a thing seen through weeds. Most of the grounds are black, slate or brown, and nearly every mouth shows its teeth. Twenty-eight works, from June 16 to August 19, 2022.
Two things happen under the scribble. Some of the heads are painted first, with shadow on the cheek and light on the brow, and the line is laid over paint. Others are nothing but line, and the head is the place where the scribble gets densest. The difference is easy to see once you look for it: paint has edges that are soft, and line has none.
The room's busiest stretch is one week, July 26 to 31, with fourteen heads in six days. Watch the teeth across it. They end up as the one clear thing in a face that has otherwise come apart.
Painted Heads Under Line
June 16 to July 8. A profile on red, then a run of heads painted in gold and brown with the scribble drawn on top.
NNOTB #147
A black skull in profile inside a black square on red, drawn in a few yellow and white lines, with a spiral eye, a row of yellow teeth and a stitched line running down the back of the head.
NNOTB #153
A horned head painted in gold, brown and blue, with heavy lids and a bearded jaw, drawn over in pink, white and blue line. The paint underneath is modelled: the brow catches light, the cheeks fall into shadow, the beard is a block of dark strokes. The line on top loops around the horns and down the face without covering it. It is the first painted head in the room, made June 24, and the one where the paint and the line are most clearly two layers.
NNOTB #160
A furry monster in the dark with two narrow eyes and a wide open mouth of white teeth, its fur a mass of green, red, blue and white scribble edged in white.
NNOTB #161
A brown head with a crown of spikes painted in gold, blue and purple, two round ringed eyes and a small zigzag mouth, framed by grey loops.
NNOTB #163
An elephant's head, or a skull with a trunk, painted in gold and purple with a red target for one eye and a pink spiral for the other, a mouth of white teeth at the bottom of the trunk. Yellow, blue and white scribble runs over the whole head, and purple drips fall from the jaw. The two eyes are the room's two kinds at once: a target on the left and a spiral on the right.
NNOTB #166
A grey bald head with a heavy brow, one eye in shadow, a black mustache and white fangs.
NNOTB #167
A dark round head in a frame, lit by two gold beams from the upper left, its open mouth a ring of white teeth, painted in brown and gold with scribble over it.
NNOTB #172
A green head with a grinning mouth of white teeth, two narrow eyes under a dark brow, and a crest of spikes, painted and scribbled on dark green.
Mid July
Four heads from July 19 to 26. A red X returns to an eye, a brown head wears a bucket, and the line starts to take over.
NNOTB #184
A dark head with a red X in one eye, a yellow bar across the brow like a headband, and a grille of white teeth, drawn in dense colored scribble.
NNOTB #189
A brown head on pale blue, painted in purple and tan with a flat top like a bucket, half-closed eyes and a grin of small teeth. Yellow and white dashes ring the head like a string of lights, and purple line loops around it. It is the one head in the room that smiles with its eyes closed, and the only one on a light ground.
NNOTB #190
A head on purple, painted in brown and red, with one dark eye and one eye of white rings around a red center, a mouth of white teeth, drawn over in blue and white line.
NNOTB #193
A tangle of dark grey, white and pink line with a small red devil at the right, its spiral eye and grin of white teeth the only clear thing in the picture.
Six Days in July
July 26 to 31, fourteen heads. The scribble is densest here, and the teeth are the one clear thing in most of them.
NNOTB #194
A skull in red, black and grey scribble, a ringed eye and a boxed eye, a jaw of white teeth.
NNOTB #195
A face in black scribble on orange, with a red X over one eye and a white ring for the other, a yellow bar across the brow, and two rows of white teeth in a dark mouth. The black line is drawn thickest here of any work in the room, in heavy vertical strokes down the cheeks. The X is as big as the eye socket and drawn in red over the black.
NNOTB #196
A head seen from the side on dark purple, its eye a blue spiral the size of a fist, its mouth a row of white teeth, drawn in orange, blue and black line.
NNOTB #197
A teal ground scribbled over in black, yellow and pink, a mask of ringed eyes and white teeth inside it.
NNOTB #199
A slate ground, a boxy head drawn in green, orange and white line, a red X over one eye, and a wide grin of white teeth in a red jaw.
NNOTB #200
A round head on dark blue crowned with yellow spikes, a ringed eye and a boxed eye.
NNOTB #201
A painted head on grey, in brown, black and gold, with two eyes that look out, a flat nose and a closed mouth, drawn over in yellow and purple line. Nothing is bared here. It is the one head in the room with its mouth shut and its eyes open, and the one most like a person. With 296 recorded strokes it is also the most worked.
NNOTB #202
A bear-like head on brown with two ringed eyes, a red mouth of white teeth at the bottom, and a second row of teeth above it, drawn in dense colored scribble.
NNOTB #203
A brown figure with a mop of hair, square glasses, a grin of white teeth, and a coat drawn in gold and brown strokes, sitting on a brown ground.
NNOTB #206
A slate ground, a mask with a spiral eye in a yellow box and a red arrow driving through its mouth of white teeth, drawn in pink, blue and yellow line.
NNOTB #207
A skull on teal in white and black line, two spiral eyes and a jaw of white teeth.
NNOTB #208
A dark skull in dense scribble, a yellow bar across one eye, a mouth of white bars at the bottom.
NNOTB #209
A dark head, a spiral for the left eye, a red X for the right, a yellow bar through both.
NNOTB #210
A dark head with a spiral eye at the right and a red X at the left, white teeth in a red mouth, and the yellow bar again, in dense red, blue and white scribble, four days after the heavy black face on orange.
Compare with #195, in this room
NNOTB #211
A black skull in profile on red and orange, facing right, with a yellow crown of spikes along the back of the head, a spiral eye, a mouth of white teeth and a yellow bar through the face.
The Last Face
One work from August 19, made the same day as the last masks: a face of spirals in soft gold.
NNOTB #231
A face made of spirals: a square spiral for one eye, a round spiral for the other, a third spiral at the right edge like an ear, and a mouth of white zigzag. Everything is drawn in thin black and gold line over soft gold circles, and the whole square is a ring of rings. Where the first head in the room was a black skull in a box on red, this one has no edge at all. It is the last work of the mask summer, drawn August 19, 2022, with 57 strokes.
Compare with #147, in this roomClosing
The first skull is flat black in its box on red. The last face is spirals in gold. The one is all edge and the other is all circle. In between, the scribble closed over the faces and the teeth were what was left showing.