Look, See

8. mutter, hiss

7. whisper, buzz

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6. warble, whir

3 Heads, ca. 1999

Untitled 1, 2, &3, ca. 1999, ink & gouache on rag, 10 1/4 X 6 5/8" each, scanned
I just found these undeniably Mardenesque drawings yesterday near the bottom of a box when I was looking for some rubber cement. I had forgotten about these, and am not positive when they were made- I'm thinking maybe around 1999, when I was doing occasional drawings of heads, but not doing much else. Other influences behind my thinking about these heads include Pollock, Auerbach, Giacometti, and Bacon. I think these were all drawn rapidly in one go with a bamboo pen I've had for twenty years; it's an 8" long piece of bamboo, almost 1" in diameter, cut at one end at about a 45 degree angle, notched along the top to make a resevoir for the ink to flow down a groove to the point, and three more notches underneath to hold ink, too. If you look closely it's marked in the way Amersterdam Arts on University Ave. in Berkeley always priced brushes: retail above, their price below. So this was priced at $2.50, but sold for $2.00. The paper is torn, not cut, using a ruler, so it has that nice ragged but even edge. It's a rag printmaking paper, cream colored, a warm, soft color that doesn't absorb liquid too quickly, beautiful for drawings like this.

5. sing, strum

20040627 drawing

Untitled, 2004, watercolor & pencil on paper, 7 1/2 X 6", scanned

This past weekend I did a bunch of ink and watercolor things on 11 X 8 1/2" and 7 1/2 X 6" paper, all with a sumi-e brush. Most of the watercolor things were red and green, and all of the ink work was black. The problem was I simply didn't know what I wanted to do, and never really felt like I got anywhere. They're all trash, except this one that, when I looked through the stack of paper yesterday, jumped out at me as maybe the beginning of something, and somewhat related to how in my mind I jump from HTML drawings to drawings on paper, something more in spirit than literally a visual interpretation, and which I haven't yet figured out how to do physically.

This is five slow strokes with a very dry brush that's about 1/2" in diameter with hairs about 1 1/2" long. Almost as soon as each stroke was brushed it was already dry. The darker red at the bottom of each stroke is a second pass with a still dry brush rubbed in almost dry watercolor from a well in the palette. The pencil was ruled after, with a yellow #2 pencil, corresponding to the stroke. The paper is from a stack of card stock I have sitting around, the same used last year for a series title "Energy" produced for Rudolf's Diner.

I like the clear character of each stroke, the supporting straight line, the modesty of means and lack of presumption, the sense of air and breath, the pace of the eye through the five figures, and how the structure is not far from the grid I've been using so much for three years now but not overbearingly present. This is not a finished work, but I think there is an idea in here that I can use.

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4. purr, rustle

3. mumble, murmur

2. drone, moan