Mike Glier (b. 1953)

A GRAMMAR OF ANIMACY

Hi Nancy.

Hello Mike. Why did you suggest “A Grammar of Animacy?” for the exhibition title?

Mike Glier: The title, A Grammar of Animacy, is from a favorite book, Braiding Sweetgrass. The concept was created by Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, to describe the linguistic attributes of the Potawatomi language. She noted that 70% of the words in Potawatomi are verbs, compared to English in which the ratio is 30%. There are verbs in Potowatomi for “to be a hill,” “to be red,” and “to be a long sandy stretch of beach,” which is very different from English, a noun-based language, that seems very well suited for a culture of things. Kimmerer described Potowatomi as a “grammar of animacy” since it has few nouns to indicate uniqueness, but endless verbs to describe the ceaseless exchange between all things. I thought it was a good title to summarize the process that Burchfield and I go through to make pictures.

Nancy Weekly: Kimmerer’s book is so moving. I’ve recommended it to many people and found that several artists, writers, and naturalists admire it as well. I’m so pleased she gave us permission to use A Grammar of Animacy as our title. The ensemble of drawings on the entrance wall are all examples of interpreting non-visual experiences of landscape into visual forms. Since we decided to let visitors to the exhibition have some fun finding examples of scent, smell, touch and sound on their own, let’s move into the exhibit and talk about your drawing, Woodpecker Drumming that we have paired with Burchfield’s synesthetic watercolor, The Red Woodpecker. Will you explain how you infuse the concept of a “grammar of animacy” in your artmaking?

MG: My woodpecker drawing was made sitting under the low branches of a tree at the edge of a bright meadow in Northern New Mexico. I was watching a coyote hunt for mice when I heard a woodpecker drumming very loudly in the distance. Soon, another woodpecker responded and the two of them carried on like percussionists at a jazz club smack-down. While they were performing, I was drawing the sound, using a lot of pointed shapes to represent the impact and intensity, but also waves to describe the undulations and balloon shapes to capture the echoing volume. There are even some zig zags in a column to represent the tree bark that was being hammered to shreds as I listened. This process is like building a grammar to communicate a special moment, but with visual abstractions instead of words.