PROCESS & STYLE - The fast, visual release of the confidant lines describes each form crisply, bluntly and without interference, yet the picture’s narrative is revealed slowly and remains timeless, allowing the viewer to linger and ponder.
The graphic images can look cartoonish, but are created with a seriousness and formality.
My fingertips coat the paper gray first, and then I draw loosely and freely, searching out my characters. Once found, decisive black lines are added as accurately as possible, so that there is no mistaking what kind of image was intended.
In the end, even the large drawings are framed under glass as a way to further enhance the formality.
TOWARDS PERFECTION - Drawing with vine charcoal allows me great freedom to search for significant forms. The charcoal’s erasing capacity enables me to keep the drawing loose, open and flexible for several weeks into the making of a piece: this is important as I make innumerable changes while tracking down the specific subject and images of each particular drawing.
Once satisfied with the armature or underlying information, I then crave a kind of geometric coding of the image that has been developing. It’s at this end point only that I use rulers and compasses, replacing one type of drawing (malleable) with another type of drawing (precise). The one-quarter inch sticks of charcoal never change, but are asked to now perform in a much more rigid fashion. This is when the process becomes most exciting. Depending on the complexity of each piece, the number of decisions, big, small, or even miniscule are staggering. It’s an exciting balancing act of control until perfection is achieved.
SHORT STATEMENT - Universal signs and symbols are direct and release information quickly. In my own drawing language, I incorporate a similarly authoritative, forceful sense of form dependent on line. Utilizing a gray tonal palette further helps to codify the drawings without interference.
The larger drawings are open-ended narratives speaking about humankind, while the smaller works focus on pure states of form.
Despite the rigors of the graphic style, there is always a warm feeling of being handmade and heartfelt.