Current Project

"In the Red Recliner"' 5 x 5"; colored pencil in sketchbook

It has been a massive effort to carve out time to make work this year. So I devised a project that I felt I could keep with - small drawings of objects around my house. I am often squeezing these in after a long day of teaching or around the class preparation and grading that needs to get done. They take an hour or two, and they act as a break - a moment to simply record what I see before me.

My work is inevitably influenced by my teaching and this year I had a preponderance of students tell me that they felt at sea using acrylic paint. "Well, what are you comfortable with?" I would ask. And the response, on multiple occasions was "colored pencils". I am embarrassed to say, I had never really taken the media seriously. In fact, it wasn't until I opened a monograph of David Hockney drawings and saw his searingly articulate contours drawn in flashes of color that I thought of using it myself.

Soon after, I was perusing Jennifer Bartlett's drawing project, In the Garden, and I was struck by her square format and her juxtaposition of two drawings. Bartlett's own project was born of limitations. She found herself in residency in France, when the unrelenting bad weather laid all her plans of working outside to waste.

It seemed fitting to borrow from both artists in my quest to sneak in some time to make art. You can view more of the project on my Instagram feed here.