CIVIL WAR NUDE CORNELIOUS R. DUFFY
CIVIL WAR NUDE CORNELIUS R. DUFFY is an 8X6 limited edition, signed print. I made it with a found b&w tintype that I enlarged and colored with photo dyes, acrylics, pen, and markers. It is of an unknown nude civil war soldier I named Cornelius. Note his crumpled hat behind him. His blue pants are lowered to his ankles. The photo probably was taken for a medical reason. The background is an adapted 1860s recruiting poster for Irish recruits.
Thousands of immigrants were successfully recruited to fight in the war. The Irish Brigade included a number of Irish Brigades from New England and New York who were predominantly Irish American. Each also had recent arrivals from Ireland. Sadly the Irish Brigades suffered some of the highest losses of the war. It became one of the most recognized and remembered of all the ethnic units.
The work is rubber stamped with "wabi-sabi" in Japanese characters. My ongoing wabi-sabi project uses found b&w photos that are in less than perfect condition: tintypes, snapshots, cabinet cards, etc. from the 1840’s through the 1950’s. I leave all original damages, writing, scotch tape, or marks on the found photo. This one was badly beaten up and rusted as you can see.
Wabi-sabi is an ancient Japanese aesthetic. It values the imperfect, the handmade and the simple. It finds beauty in things impermanent, and incomplete. It celebrates the flawed beauty that comes with age, and the rough wear and tear of life.
Richard Powell, a wabi-sabi scholar, wrote, "Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”
Thousands of immigrants were successfully recruited to fight in the war. The Irish Brigade included a number of Irish Brigades from New England and New York who were predominantly Irish American. Each also had recent arrivals from Ireland. Sadly the Irish Brigades suffered some of the highest losses of the war. It became one of the most recognized and remembered of all the ethnic units.
The work is rubber stamped with "wabi-sabi" in Japanese characters. My ongoing wabi-sabi project uses found b&w photos that are in less than perfect condition: tintypes, snapshots, cabinet cards, etc. from the 1840’s through the 1950’s. I leave all original damages, writing, scotch tape, or marks on the found photo. This one was badly beaten up and rusted as you can see.
Wabi-sabi is an ancient Japanese aesthetic. It values the imperfect, the handmade and the simple. It finds beauty in things impermanent, and incomplete. It celebrates the flawed beauty that comes with age, and the rough wear and tear of life.
Richard Powell, a wabi-sabi scholar, wrote, "Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”