As part of the summer 2023 SAIC residency, the month of July has been a very busy time. In recent weeks I continued developing ideas and approaches discussed in previous blog posts—focusing on large-scale drawings and visual explorations. In this blog post I discuss the development of two drawings.
Drawing 1: On Wednesday, July 5 I purchased a large role of Canson mixed media paper. In the studio, I cut a large sheet and taped it to the west-facing studio wall (the height of the sheet covers much of the wall from top to bottom). I have never worked on a paper surface of this size before. As I describe below, the experience of building an image at this scale was at times challenging.
As with previous images rendered during this residency I began this project with a blind gesture drawing. I then spent thirty minutes translating the linework from this sketch into a rough composition—interpreting marks, clarifying forms and defining a sense of space and texture. This intermediary drawing served as reference for the large-scale image developed between July 5 and July 10. The large drawing (see picture below) remains incomplete but does build on visual themes developed during this first summer at SAIC: the juxtaposition of organic forms and stark geometry, subtle elements of collage, and a degree of improvisation in rendering visual material. I also made use of detailed mark-making in order to create subtle textures, and applied different levels of softness in graphite (from HB to 9B) to develop contrasting tones of grey.
As I worked on this drawing I experienced ambivalence, and at times doubt, regarding the direction and quality of the emerging image. I spent many hours defining braid-like formations in the bottom left of the image. I also aimed to contrast these small-scale elements with a bold and gestural component (namely, the two overlapping circular forms in the top half of the sheet as well as the wavy shapes in the center).
The end-result is a drawing that (more than anything else) shows a process of exploration. The large format paper served as a surface for play, unexpected juxtapositions and experimentation.
Drawing 2: On July 13 I started another large-scale drawing (similar in size to the last). Before working on this image I went through a similar process to previous works—beginning with blind gestural marks (including a large piece shown at the bottom of this post), followed by a refined preparatory sketch outlining key features.
This latest drawing includes elements that are comparable to what appeared in the previous piece—contrasting geometric forms and organic shapes. However, the sense of space, use of colour and visual components are developed and configured in a more carefully considered manner. Furthermore, as I developed this image I often referred back to the entanglement of lines evident in my gestural line drawing (see image below).
In theoretical terms, the notion of entanglement is also discussed by various scholars in the humanities, including archaeologist Ian Hodder and physicist/philosopher, Karen Barad. Ideas explored by these authors often challenge the human-environment divide that informed early to mid twentieth century social science research. Unlike the dichotomous view of reality suggested through such research, Barad, Hodder and others describe fuzzy boundaries between things at the micro, subatomic level, or a profound sense of interconnectedness at the level of social and material relations. These relational ideas are also at the heart of literature by Indigenous scholars (such as Viola Cordova) and authors in the field of human ecology.
In rendering this latest drawing I attempted to embody ideas about entanglement/ecology (as noted above) by visualizing links within the drawing and by expanding my linework outside the boundaries of the paper surface. The drawing (along with material outside the drawing) reveals a field of relations (connecting different places and times). This idea of visually depicting entanglement remains ill-defined at this point, but does provide a foundation on which to build further work in the fall of 2023.
