Main Statement

In my drawings, I explore how mark making, time, space, and thinking can affect and redevelop each other. I work between mediums and dimensions to expand the concept of drawing to include installations, works on paper, and photography. Works are composed of marks that are signs of time and, referencing artist Avis Newman, thought. Current drawings grow out of sunlight and shadow interactions in everyday surroundings. Movement and Eastern philosophy are also influences. I work responsively in the space in-between all of these entities for greater reflection. That is where experimentation happens and a drawing opens to what it can be.

Newman's statement, “A mark is a sign of thought.”, informs my Art on many levels. As the hand or body makes a line across paper or space, what happens inside the mind? This evolved into an interest in the relationship between drawing and time. How is time experienced when mark making? Furthermore, Taoism informs my practice, as I aim to work from an even perspective. 

Current works, Backyard and Garden Shadow Happenings and Sun and Site Drawings, explore how drawings can emerge from light and shadow interactions in the natural and built environments.  This encourages mindful observation of the momentary.  In these series, I record sunlight as it moves in relation to structures upon architecture and plants over set increments of time. Rendering in intervals allows for full engagement in the mark making/drawing process and allows one to focus on “being” while working rather than “doing”. 

Walking Drawings extend concepts by recording light and shadow interplay upon nature and architecture while in motion. I engage in a responsive mark making process during walks after work or on the weekend. This activity encourages mindfulness while passing through the local landscape.

Resulting works are frameworks of consideration to see what may happen next.

Satellite Statements on Current Series:

Garden and Backyard Shadow Happenings

Garden and Backyard Shadow Happenings question how drawings can emerge from light and shadow interactions in my everyday surroundings. In this series, I mark sunlight on paper as it shifts and interacts with plants. Recording light fluctuations allows one to observe and record the momentary and bring forth what is often hidden beyond the foliage. During the work process, the movements of my hand merge with those of the plants, forming a semiotic relationship. 

In this series, shadows cast from ferns are traced and rendered on sheets of paper over set increments of time. The residual marks serve as a record of the activity. Each drawing made emerges from distinct lighting conditions and has different degrees of development.  The works questions how time affects how we can see and interpret form. This gives viewers varying amounts of information to interpret. During this process a sort of Brechtian alienation experience occurs when encountering the multiple perspectives. The presentation of diverse recordings invites them to take a more active role to decipher what is being seen. Together, the drawings create windows into shifting states of the plants’ form at given points in time.

Sun and Site Drawings

These works on paper were inspired by shadow interactions upon architecture during the winter solstice.

Walking Drawings

How can drawing merge with daily life to see and experience both in unusual and surprising ways?

In Walking Drawings, I engage in a responsive mark making process with my surroundings while in flux. This activity encourages being fully present to the environment as one passes through it. It brings together interests in unconventional methods of drawing and mapping a sense of place. Marks are made on paper as the body bobs up and down to translate the experience. Drawing this way encourages “being” rather than “doing”. Over time, this process awakens the senses to not only see what is around, but to feel and become immersed in the sounds and textures. Recent works were created while on nature walks in the early spring and summer. The lightness of the blooms and air flow were inspirations. These series encourages taking time to become immersed the local landscape and notice what is happening.

I am also interested in how these works can be documented on site and how that can offer unusual ways of creating installations. 

Time Lines (Projections) Installation

The recent installation Time Lines (Projections) explores how dimensionality, architectural space, and time can affect the development of a drawing and thinking. Shadows cast by the sun coming through a window (in relation to architecture) along with projections of shadows were traced onto paper. 3D marks (made with dowels) are then interrelated with the 2D lines, creating a dialogue between dimensions and space. Works are then placed on the walls, floors, and corners of an environment to converse and see what happens next.

Sight Drawings

Sight Drawings are drawings seen in passing. They may share formal qualities, like line, and tone, with traditional works, or stir the imagination for new ones to come. No interventions are made. They are images of what could become.

The Shadows and Shimmer in the City series focuses on the interplay of light and shadow, seen as marks, upon urban architecture and how drawings can develop out of this often overlooked, everyday occurrence. Photos are taken when driving or walking around the city. Sometimes I seek them out while other times they find me. 

Extra

 Newman's statement, “A mark is a sign of thought.”, informs my Art on many levels. As the hand or body makes a line across paper or space, what happens inside the mind? This evolved into an interest in the relationship between drawing and time. How is time experienced when mark making? Furthermore, Taoism informs my practice, as I aim to work from an even perspective. Recent works on paper explore how the Bretchian concept of alienation can affect perception.

Newman's statement, “A mark is a sign of thought.”, informs my Art on many levels. As the hand or body makes a line across paper or space, what happens inside the mind? This evolved into an interest in the relationship between drawing and time. How is time experienced when mark making? Furthermore, Taoism informs my practice, as I aim to work from an even perspective. Recent works on paper explore how the Bretchian concept of alienation can affect perception.