Steeltown Anthem Interview

Here's a link to a recent interview posted by Mundania Horvath. She has a terrific blog about art, design and architecture in Pittsburgh called Steeltown Anthem.

How To Solve a Thorny Problem

We're used to living in an either-or-world, but when it comes to yes-or-no dilemmas, the most powerful thing you can ask is: What if both answers are true?

Client: O, The Oprah Magazine
Art Director: Herve Kwimo

July 2010 issue

Illustration Copyright © 2010 David Pohl
HOP | House of Pingting Archives

A Winter Hymnal (Songs For My Father)

A Winter Hymnal (Songs For My Father)

A compilation of nine photographs documenting a series of rituals performed in my garden this past winter

in memory of my father Elmer Pohl, who died on December 22, 2009. 

A Winter Hymnal (Songs for My Father) is my contribution to a new group show called Responding, which 

opens this Friday April 16 at Future Tenant and runs through May 15. Responding is curated by Anna Mikolay.

Responding:

In November of 2006 I buried my 13 year old dog Sherman under an old lilac tree in the back yard behind 

my home. Soon after, I began to use his burial site as a place to perform puja (devotional ritual) ceremonies. 

This personally sacred site has become for me a place to reflect upon love and reverence, memory, loss, time 

and the nature of decay.

Ganesh (2010)

Ganesh (2010)
Site specific wall drawing (12' x 20')
Spirograph, ink, graphite, latex, gouache, watercolor, kum-kum powder, tumeric, incense, fire and found objects.

@ The Pittsburgh Center For the Arts
from the exhibition Cluster
Curated by Adam Welch
February 5, 2010 - March 28, 2010

Copyright © 2010 David Pohl
HOP | House of Pingting Archives

Ganesh: from The Loop Yoga Drawing Project

Ganesh 

Spirograph, ink, graphite, latex paint, gouache, watercolor, kum-kum powder, tumeric, incense, fire and found objects.

2010 @ The Pittsburgh Center For the Arts from the exhibition Cluster Curated by Adam Welch February 5, 2010 - March 28, 2010

Ganesh is the fifth installment in my continuing series (since 2001) of site specific wall drawings created utilizing a Spirograph, the 1960's drawing toy for children. 

Ganesh (or Ganesha), is the beloved Hindu God with the head of an elephant (representing the Atman or soul), and a body in human form. Ganesh is known as The Lord of Beginnings, The Lord of Success and The Remover of Obstacles. He is one of the five primary Hindu deities,  along with Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga.  The first action in almost all Hindu pujas (devotional rituals) is to honor Ganesh.

I first started working with the Spirograph in 2001, and quickly discovered it's potential as a tool for meditative, ritualistic drawing practices. Around that time I also began a music project to facilitate my meditation and yoga practice, based on the concept(s) of mantra. I called it Loop Yoga.  Loop Yoga utilizes sampled music in the creation of repetitious sound currents with the intention of deeply connecting to the divinity encased within a sound structure. Together I have dubbed these (drawing and sound) investigations The Loop Yoga Project. The ephemeral, mutable and repetitive elements of this work points towards the cyclical nature of life. I attempt to illustrate the idea that life is ultimately a spiritual process through which one can discover a deeper union with (a) timeless reality.