Main Statement
Foremost, my art begins with the question "What is drawing?" I work between mediums and dimensions to expand the concept of drawing that includes installation, photography, and works on paper. To further this investigation, I explore the relationship between mark making, time, and thinking to see how they can affect and redevelop each other. Works are composed of lines that are signs of time and, referencing artist Avis Newman, thought. Sunlight, shadow, daily life, movement, Martin Heidegger, and Eastern philosophy are influences. I work responsively in the space in-between 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? In Being and Time, philosopher Martin Heidegger writes, "Being and time determine each other reciprocally…." I question how the drawing process can factor into this dialogue. Furthermore, daily life and Taoism inform and guide my practice. Works grow out of their surroundings. As in Taoism, I aim to work from an even, balanced perspective.
My 2D and 3D works grow out of (sun) light and shadow interactions with architecture. In Time Lines, sunlight is repeatedly traced on paper as it moves or is projected in relation to geometric structures over set increments of time. This process acts as a system of measurement for the formal growth of a drawing. Rendering in intervals allows for full engagement in the mark making process and allows one to focus on “being” while working rather than “doing”. This activity marks time passage and brings together the macroscopic shifts of the universe with those of the rendering hand. Surprising alignments stir harmonies and moments of clarity.
In The Garden (Shadow Happenings) series, I trace sunlight as it interacts with plants in gardens. Marking light fluctuations allows one to observe what is happening beyond the foliage. It immerses one in the garden’s textures, fragrances, and colors to expand the experience. As the wind blows the hand delineates movements of the petals and leaves. After several hours of marking, the drawing becomes a record of moments spent in nature.
Walking Drawings extend concepts by recording light and shadow and interplay upon nature and the built environment 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.
Current Series:
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.
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 local environment as one passes through it. 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 and, in turn, experiencing the site.
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 be.
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.
Under Currents: Installations
Much like Sight Drawings, current installations focus on temporality and the interplay of light and shadow upon architecture or geometric structures. They grow out of moments in time; when light enters a window or peeps through the slits in a wooden deck. Interventions are made with small scale geometric materials like cinderblocks to stir a drawing into being. Shifts in lighting and shadow are documented. The resulting static. digital images contrast the movement of light.
Between 0 and 1:
“All things are continually interacting with each other, and in doing so each bears the traces of that with which it has interacted:...”
― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
The works on paper, Between 0 and 1, explore the link between drawing, time, and thinking at the quantum level. In that micro-world, myriad interactions occur in matter between these small numeric values. Works are made by tracing sunlight as it shifts in relation to architecture over several weeks. The accumulation of lines become a record of the sun’s tracks; metaphors for the ephemeral nature thought. Their interweaving calls for further responsive mark making. Epiphanic moments of clarity emerge when seemingly random lines align and harmonize.
Archive:
Progressions
How can dimensions and diverse media affect how a drawing develops?
Progressions, Shuffling(s), and Reshufflings: Dialogue Between Dimensions:
The Progression(s) and Shuffling(s) series explore a dialogue between dimensions, media, and time to expand how to see and experience drawing.
Conglomerate (Progressions) are photographs of geometric constructions built in relation to light and shadow. The term progressions alludes to successions of musical chords produced over time to stir harmonies. These constructions changed in form as sunlight shifted over the course of several hours on cement. Different stages of the activity were photographed and times are noted in the titles.
Conglomerates
Using ordinary construction materials such as tiles, shelves, and molding...works from the Conglomerate series (2007-ongoing) occupy a space between drawing, sculpture, and architecture... the elements 'interact in "states of tension and flow'." (Margaret Winslow).