Naming, shaming and reclaiming...

This drawing was torturous. It's nothing like I'd hoped it would be. You win some, you lose some. In it's favour, it's made me think about perhaps needing to give things proper names. When I entered my drawings into a gallery exhibition recently, they needed names and it did my head in thinking of them. Art shouldn't need words, that's the whole point! And yet here I am writing about it, don't ever accuse me of being consistent. So, in spite of myself and after reading some Greek mythology as research for my next drawing, I call this "Thanatos," god of natural, gentle and non-violent death. Which is what this drawing was meant to express; being slowly reclaimed by the earth, still beautiful, just in a different way. I like it better already...

Thanatos 2017, black and violet ballpoint pen on paper

My silhouette is stationary...

I was looking forward to a weekend of vegetation. The plan was to get home on Friday and turn into furniture until Monday morning. But I woke up yesterday fizzing with energy, I couldn't keep still and the intense, delicate drawing that's consumed my January so far was definitely not the place to channel it. I needed to chuck ink about with no consideration for the end product (or the upholstery). I've used this technique before and I'm not going to say it works marvellously or that I love it, but it satisfies a need every now and again. I paint the shadows with masking fluid; ink in the whites then remove the masking. So here's my favourite from the cutting room floor, an experimental spaceboy. I've added a bit of black and white pen here and there this morning because I just cant leave things alone. I'm throwing him out there, because you don't know what you've got till someone tells you...

So it started there...

I've recently had these two drawings in a local open exhibition. It's the first time I've ever put anything on display in public (or at home for that matter, although I know there a few "private collections" in existence) but I thought it was about time I stopped being such a massive weirdo about it. I'm painfully shy when it comes to my art and I get in such a state when I'm about to show a drawing to someone, especially if they've asked for it. Which is why I never mentioned that I was showing anything until now...the exhibition ended an hour ago...sorry! One day I might do something normal.