Information

• Duck Against an Orange Sky

  January, 2021

  acrylic and watercolor on paper

  Portfolio Updates

Statement

• For me, drawing is the most immediate way to get at an idea, figure something out, or meditate. Everything I might try to accomplish has its origins in the process of drawing. Every other creative process has barriers, often turning them into technical or intellectual procedures.

  These drawings focus on turning off the intellectual processes to maintain a connection to the psyche or emotional imagination. Observational drawing is perception-based. You turn off your thought processes and focus exclusively on what you are seeing. Thought gets in the way and becomes a barrier to perception and response. This is also true when what you are attempting to observe can't be seen. These drawings represent a process where I'm trying to generate gestures or abstractions before I have a chance to think about what's going on. I find that I connect to my sense of abstraction by eliminating decisions about media. Simplifying to this extent, allows for the most immediate connection to the unconscious.

  These drawings took advantage of spontaneous mark-making that occurred from cleaning off a mixer with solvent. Dried acrylic paint was caked onto a small mixing attachment. I had this attachment soaking in a solvent to dissolve the paint. Rather than throw out the spent paint, I decided to see what would come out of using it. The point is to distract myself from my preconceptions and see how I might respond to resolve a composition.

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