“Wanderer—there is no path…the path is made by walking…” Luigi Nono
Introduced By Kathy Weinberg
I recently took a ramble through Richard Iammarino’s selection of his works from his 60 years of making art, featuring sculpture, drawing, painting, woodcarving, travel journal writing, and a trove of sketchbooks.
I also saw a rendering of a room interior. It is a watercolor and pencil from 1990, just 16” x 20”, which shows an interior, elegant and atmospheric while being precise and fully realized. I saw delicate depictions of wood graining that mirror Iammarino’s own line drawings. Then an entry titled Unfinished Comic 1995-7 “Lots of unfinished projects…most of my time taken up with painting.”
Iammarino is present in every line, present in all of his work. His art is grounded in elements of the world, so we begin from a known place before heading out into unfamiliar territories. A journey narrated by Richard Iammarino while looking through his sketchbooks sounds like this:
“Spanish Sahara…now Morocco Western Sahara. 1963…The journey that set me off…just follow your nose…see where it takes you…covered a lot of ground…few regrets. (Picture a 1962 Land Rover 109.)”
“Cefalu, Sicily 1999…A wonderful spot on planet earth.”
“Entering Bangladesh (Why we travel, 2006) Eight weeks passing through this alone…just taking it in…again too many stories.”
“Sunderbons…out with the honey gatherers…most incredible people…a unique experience…a world cut off from our world…TIGERS…they deal with tigers…to gather honey…I went out with them…smoking the hives…the outsider…keep your head down…get out there guys…It’s a most amazing game world.”
