Landlines

Working on a flat table and using just a pen, I hand-draw lines that coalesce into a field or form. I choose from a vocabulary of familiar marks which have evolved for me over many years: little lines, dots, small ovals and circles. The symmetry of my work might suggest a very mechanical approach using rulers and grids, but my drawings are always done freehand. The marks often grow slowly from the center, moving outwards and evolving organically, following an intuitive path to a prescribed edge or form. The freehand lines are important to me – I think they have more presence when wobbly and imperfect. Each mark exists to me as evidence of a distinct and patient process, an incremental growth and accumulation that requires a minute attention to detail. My process is slow, iterative and can be very meditative. Drawings take days and weeks of multiple sittings to reach completion.

I have lately been inspired by the palette of late winter greys, blues, and browns, reflected in the native bunchgrasses, kestrel and coyote of the Shasta Valley of California, where I live. Spring brings yellows and greens, and gemstones of jasper and banded agate nest in the volcanic clay soil, showing me rainbows of blue-green and pink within this high desert terrain and the changing palette of the seasons. Like a gemstone, different bands of color laid beside each other vibrate and produce mixed tones and values adding depth to each mark and shape of a drawing. In thinking of the processes of time and nature, I’m inspired by organic forms and phenomenon – from a tumbleweed to a star system, and in particular, the symmetry of the forms we often encounter in the natural world. The shapes of gems and flowers, and my long obsession with organic forms, merge with my affinity for geometric abstraction, offering a container for the marks to live within and push against.

In the process of making a drawing, and the experience of collecting and planning marks, the repetition of my hand drawing the same shape again and again, and the pause, silence, and peace that comes with that process, I seek to find quiet and stillness. My hope is that these drawings serve as a similar resting place for my viewer.