Untitled ["tattoo" book] 1971

Editor: So, here we have James McCracken Jr.'s "Untitled ['tattoo' book]" from 1971, done in ink. It's got this real…primitive feeling, almost like something you’d find in a child's sketchbook. How do you read this piece? Curator: It pricks a childhood memory for me, like when I'd press flowers and then carefully ink the impressions, wanting to catch and keep everything. But look at how the geometric meets the organic. Aren't the circles both playful and a bit…anxious-making? Does it feel contained or trapped to you? Editor: Trapped is interesting...I hadn't thought about that. I was so focused on the simple form of this stamp or sticker but maybe you are correct that the boundaries lend themselves to the animal-like drawing inside of the object feeling isolated, unable to break free. Curator: Exactly! Perhaps, this piece echoes McCracken’s interior life. Do you see a creature there or is that just me, searching for forms in clouds? Editor: I definitely see the creature! I thought maybe a gecko. Its placement within the lined shape definitely speaks to me in terms of constraints now that you have provided a new point of view! What a unique juxtaposition! Curator: Yes, it feels intimate, like a whispered secret or an ancient, personal talisman. And yet, made in the late modernist period! Curious, isn't it, how an artwork can carry a conversation through time and across perspectives. It might just be that objects are just really like poems of time, don't you agree? Editor: Definitely something to ponder...thanks so much for your insights! Curator: The pleasure was all mine, it has provided great fodder for future meditations!