Thoughts of Light in the Dark, A 20-hour drawing proposal

   While I enjoy drawing, photography is my true passion. I would like to complete a twenty-hour photographic drawing. I will document my progression with a single still of the entire hour, two hour, or thirty minute segments. I will be drawing with penlights, flashlights and ambient light within the frame of my 35mm film camera. I have been working with coating a light sensitive material onto glass plates, which creates a painterly texture in the final images. By the end of the project I hope to create a 3D “model”, giving the drawings a space of their own.

    The artists Herakut have a style that combines gestural and expressionist execution with fine detail graffiti art. I love the giant scale that they work with and wish to push my own art in this direction.  

   Ellen Berkenblit’s work reminds me that it can be good to just let go and allow the ideas to work through to the paper on its own. When it comes to placing pen to paper, there is usually a gigantic roadblock that I have to hurdle over in order to complete anything that I have set out to do. While the simplicities of Ellen’s figure work bothers me, I cannot help but appreciate her use of colors, and how she is able to embrace the sometimes halting strokes and uncontrolled drips within her work.

   Heather Hansen is a great example of throwing your whole body into the experience of creating art. Her work is large, simplistic, and feminine.

   I am looking forward to this 20 hour drawing because it will give me a chance to set aside the intensions of the eye and the hand, and let my entire body have control. This will, in a sense, give me even more expression of freedom due to the fact that I am not able to see the “lines” that I have laid down. All I can do is make a mark and move along. Yippee!