Joe D's 1970 Ink and Gold Pen Mandala Drawing 1960s soviet union 18" x 12" on natural

18" x 12" on natural colored lightish weight drawing paper

which would have been used as a (rather cumbersome but wonderfully performative

with enough slots to accommodate a fair bit of mail

This seems to be a pretty rare one

Joe D's 1970 Ink and Gold Pen Mandala Drawing 1960s soviet union 18" x 12" on naturalMaybe done in art class, or maybe under the influence of hallucinogens, or maybe both who knows?! Pretty cool I think whatever the case, and the Joe D who signed it was certainly invested in it. To my eye the finely drawn red ink work has a nice relationship to Fraktur drawings, and 19th c. Spencerian calligraphic drawings, too, and the black on gold patterned corners have an Islamic feel. And of course it reads like a mandala. Maybe Joe D was really