Statement:
One of my undergraduate professors once said, "Drawing will always be Painting's poor cousin," and he was onto something. Drawing will never have any of the esteem or prestige of painting. Not without extremely rare exception, certainly. So, why bother with drawing? There's something undeniably present about a mark on a surface. It can collapse the time between when the mark was made and when it is seen. It instantly conveys the exact energy with which it is made. It's there, in front of you, and it is there in its entirety. It's immediate. It's visceral.
It's that very quality of drawing which makes it important to the work I make. I intend to create work in which that immediate, visceral response mirrors an identical response to one I've had. To create an image which imparts a kinesthetic understanding of a point of view does that. Even better, it does so in a manner that allows the viewer to explore their response without any of the baggage involved in trying to understand my experience or response.
A good piece of visual art is like some good music: there's something about the song--whether it's a particular progression of notes, a lyric, a timbre--which appeals and catches the attention. Upon further listening and viewing, the ideas of the piece become more fully formed, more thoroughly developed, until a complete, nuanced, and very specific idea exists.
It's through the use of drawing's distinct characteristics that I aim to make that appeal.
Current series (Misanthropy-an Aggressive Nihilist Lens):
People, individually, undermine each other, deride each other, revile each other, and destroy each other. It's done consciously and not, purposefully and not, voluntarily and not. People eat each other alive, rend each other's flesh, asphyxiate, starve, and mutilate each other. Nothing can be done to change any of this. Nothing can be done to refrain from taking part. Everyone does it regardless of the degree to which they want to avoid it. The only thing anyone can ever do properly is ruin someone else.
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