I'm thrilled to announce that my latest small-scale typewriter drawings will be on view at Luke's Frame Shop, my favorite local frame shop + art gallery from September 3 - September 29, 2015. I was fortunate enough to show the first incarnation of this series in my hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, earlier this summer, and I'm very pleased I have the next twenty days to crank out some new drawings especially for this exhibition. Carpal tunnel, here I come.
Please mark your calendars for Saturday, September 12 and join me from 6-8pm during the opening reception, which delightfully coincides with the Belmont Street Fair. Hope to see you there!
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| Cyan, 2015 typewritten ink on paper, 8 x 10 1/4 inches $200 |
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| Jamond, 2015 typewritten ink on paper 8 1/4 x 12 inches $200 |
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| Michael, 2015 typewritten ink on paper 8 1/4 x 13 inches $200 |
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| Michelle, 2015 typewritten ink on paper, 8 x 10 3/8 inches $200 |
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| Self Portrait, 2015 typewritten ink on paper, 7 1/4 x 12 inches $200 |
In this series of portraits the subject's identity is obscured either by natural visual distortion or by the purposeful withholding of certain features, a result of my fascination with the way in which facial features can mutate into erratic and confusing landscapes. As my heavy handed drawing techniques in traditional media and linework urge cartoonish renderings, the sense of veracity that comes with portraiture was elusive.
Using my Sears Citation II manual typewriter as a drawing tool and a photograph of the subject as a framework, I challenged my instinct to rely on caricature but also found myself resistant to the ideals of traditional portraiture. Rather than seeking and depicting a blank truth, where facial features and body parts appear as expected, I was compelled to complete an exercise in neglecting the firmly cemented visual images in my head. Navigating through this imagery using this cumbersome yet delicate drawing tool within the delineated contours of the photographs allowed me to scatter my focus, working in one compartment at a time and allowing the images to form like sediment collecting, a slow build of overlapping marks and feeds through the typewriter until each was complete. Focusing solely on the difference in values and angles and not the expectations of visual truth, I was led back to the fundamental task of drawing what’s there.
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