Not all things burn to dust.
Charcoal is formed through incomplete combustion. The air is starved of oxygen, through close quarters and high heat. This can occur naturally or by force; what matters is that all water and volatile compounds are released, risen, invisible to us except through flame. What’s left behind is nearly pure carbon. Charcoal is matter unmade, life in its earliest form.
How have you learned to be undone?
Some things burn just because they can, and some things are long overdue. I’ve had more of the second; I had to stand on the blackened ground a thousand times over before I started to learn not to hold so tight, that its exhausting to live with hands clutched. That less is destroyed if I let things burn when they need to.
It takes a lifetime to face the flame with open arms.
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Charcoal isn’t the fire; it’s the moment after. Whatever you were building, chasing, or becoming is gone. There is humility in remembering you can be destroyed like that. And there’s a mania in realizing that once again, you’re still standing. There you find yourself, suspended in the empty space, called to move forward in surrender. To choose to say yes, again, to a world where everything can burn.
So we learn to be undone. We learn to love the space between, the call to do it again. We learn to watch and trust the ground and its stubborn path to life; all things burn, but even the charred land itself is temporary.
There is no return to what you were. It’s just a layer now; it will turn itself over to the subconscious, the soil more fertile than it was. But in this moment everything is quiet. All things are ash and you are flesh. Your breath catches. Your blood flows.
What we make is impermanent. As are we and the places we live, forever shifting; here we are in grief and awe.
I will only be tattooing charcoal abstracts at these locations. I will have a book of predesigned abstracts for us to choose from. From there, we can tattoo one as is, or use it as a basis for freehand expansion.
Charcoal abstractions can take many forms. They can be oriented more as a barren landscape, circular shapes, long and sprawling, dark and dense. I’ve assembled a few examples here, but I hope to expand beyond these with you.. We can discuss as many specifics of size and placement as you’d like beforehand, or leave it open.
I realize most of my mailing list may be located on the east coast, so I apologize if this is irrelevant to you. I don’t actually know, but regardless, I thought it might be nice to send each from this winter series (this is 2 of 3) over email since they’re somewhat writing oriented. I won’t have much for you during the warm seasons, so I promise I won't be spamming you.
Booking and all other information can be found via the links below.
-Jude