11.20.02
What do you look for in choosing a piece of paper?
I look for something that seems distant to me, if it could sort of offend my sensibilities. I like to see individual pieces of paper before I take one home.
Why such pale marks?
I think my marks are thin and the outcome is pale. The way the picture plane opens when there is struggle between mark and actual texture on a piece of paper is important to me - marks lie on the surface and at the same time seem sunken into it. Darker, thicker lines tend to buzz against each other and create an effect that occurs more off the page.
Does each drawing have a differing theme or specific intention, and if so, how is that chosen?
Works usually start out vaguely resembling something tangible that interests me, an image of an artwork, music, book, which I keep in plain view. Soon, though, these end up feeling like place markers and mementos. A piece becomes a problem that I need to work/figure out. A strong bias is to not resolve a piece in the same way I did the last.
While you are drawing, are sequences of marks often related to representing specific objects?
Sequences do in areas. More specifically relationships I see between actual objects on my desk: erasure residue, chip of wood, coat hook, whatever is on my desk- that represents a small area. Throughout a piece areas are a mixed balance of marks: some that give themselves up to represent and be part of something bigger and others that represent something themselves.
How do you keep the drawing abstract and away from representation yet frequently have them read as about to be some thing - or another?
I work slowly. Things evolve from many perspectives. I try to remain pretty conscious while working and break myself in attempt to keep seeing another way, but time is really the best way for me to get a distance and judge how to keep things on that line.