Rembrandt

In 2002 I made a a site specific project which I titled trajectory for Rembrandt. The presence of three old oak trees on the grounds of the Groeneveld Castle in Baarn, The Netherlands, reminded me of Rembrandt's etching three trees of 1643.

I made a curved array willows which were to be pollarded every three years. Rembrandt's landscape works often portray these willows.

The bold strokes of his pen, crayon or etching needle have always had my respect - a respect for his swift and confident technique. When working on the trajectory project I contemplated making spatial interpretations of his drawn lines when the time would come. This year it was four hundred years ago that Rembrandt van Rijn was born.

When starting to work on a proposal, I look for an incentive. A motivation helps to get the gray cells working. So I've been reading up on the history of Denver. While I was in Denver for the presentation of the plans, I'd seen the street called Wynkoop and deducted that this must have something to do with Dutch wine merchants 'wijnkopers' and sought for connections which weren't there. Soon though I discovered it was named after Edward Wynkoop, and read stories from various points of view as to his part in shaping the history of Denver. Maybe I had hoped to be able to make some connection to Rembrandt's Holland. Then I thought why should Rembrandt's lines be less of an incentive than the Arapaho, buffalos or the gold rush?