Given Forms and The Shape of Your Absence 2016-2022

2016- 2022 – The Shape of your Absence and Given Forms.

The drawings begin by tracing forms or parts of forms such as hands, heads, frames, or French curves. The choice of form typically demonstrates a tension between a hard, machine-made edge and the wavering, soft edge of a figure that has been traced from life. The “actualness,” particularly of the figures, is important to me, and I think of them as “given forms.” Where the tracing overlaps in the drawing, it can indicate a gesture or signal movement such as holding or pushing. It subtly alludes to emotional states and relationships between people or between people and their environment. I find this impulse to document one’s body elemental and recurrent in the work of art across histories. Artists such as Ana Mendieta or David Hammons, and the handprints of the Cueva de Las Manos, all of which I use for visual research and to which I am indebted. The most recent drawings incorporate multiple patterns that overlap, camouflage, and confound. The patterns are motifs developed over time in my studio and form a personal lexicon which acts in the packed way of a symbol or certain poetry, elemental but buzzing with association and metaphor. They emerge out of my 25-year practice of drawing and exploration of line on paper.

Two Color pencil and graphite on paper 30" x 41" Fidelity Contemporary Art Collection
Two
Color pencil and graphite on paper
30″ x 41″
Fidelity Contemporary Art Collection

 

Held color pencil on paper 20"x16"
Held
color pencil on paper
20″x16″

 

Perpetual Motion color pencil and graphite on paper 30" x 22"
Perpetual Motion
color pencil and graphite on paper
30″ x 22″
Son and Father 60" x 41" Acrylic, color pencil and graphite on paper
Son and Father
60″ x 41″
Acrylic, color pencil and graphite on paper

 

 

Push Back Color pencil and reflective tape on paper 30"x22"
Push Back
Color pencil and reflective tape on paper
30″x22″
Actual/Reflection color pencil, graphite and reflective tape on paper 14" x 11"
Actual/Reflection
color pencil, graphite and reflective tape on paper
14″ x 11″
Marked Reply graphite and color pencil on paper 14" x 11"
Marked Reply
graphite and color pencil on paper
14″ x 11″