manifest national drawing annual 2005 exhibition-in-print
online supplemental resource


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about the 2005 NDA

The National Drawing Annual publication was conceived as an extension of Manifest's Drawing Center mission. Its goal is to support the recognition, documentation, and publication of excellent, current, and relevant works of drawing in the United States and beyond.

Manifest’s call for entries to the first annual NDA received nearly 300 submissions from across the U.S. Artists from a total of 22 states, and the United Kingdom submitted work to be considered. Through a rigorous jury process these were reduced to 48 works by 26 artists from twelve states and the United Kingdom to be featured in the sixty-eight page full-color publication.

This supplemental resource offers biographical information and artist's statements for each of the 26 artists included in the exhibition-in-print. One image from each artist is also provided for reference relative to their information.

introduction

Drawing, as I learned it, became a valid and collectible art form in the high renaissance. It was the proliferation of paper, not pencils, that made it so available, and the proliferation of genius and personality that made the marks they created so desirable. Collectible creative spontaneity and the true age of modern drawing began here.

However, as we all know, drawing as a form of communication, research, and documentation is ancient. Perhaps even religious ceremony found its first prehistoric home in the drawn scrawlings of some impassioned cave dweller. Stone, clay, papyrus, skin (both living and dead), canvas, wood pulp, cotton fiber, cathode ray tubes, string, LCD panels, laser light beams, and ethereal smoke in the sky have all been the history of the medium.

This reminds us that drawing is not merely the results of an activity - a product. Nor is it just an academic exercise designed to build skill. Rather it is this and more, and includes the act of perceiving, analyzing, and contemplating through a visual, emotional, mental, and physical process things both observed and conceived.

The origins of the word draw are, in every way linked to the word and concept of drag. In its simplest definition drawing (the act) is the process of dragging an instrument across a surface to make a line. A drawing is an image or sign made in such a way, primarily of lines. It is an act of delineation – of a concept, form, or image. In this way, interestingly enough, it is inseparable from writing, and therefore something that nearly everyone does.

Today we have loosened our definition to include less than obvious variations. However, drawings today usually retain some aspect of the simple definition. They are frequently linear, or made with dry media, or made on paper, but not always.

Our goal at Manifest, among many, is to champion drawing as a rich and culturally significant art form, as well as a way of learning about life and viewing the world. With the National Drawing Annual, we are fulfilling this goal by establishing a yearly publication that documents just what drawing is today in all its varied and evolving forms. We offer the NDA exhibit-in-print as a margin for excellence and as a record of, and reward for, the passionate and sincere efforts of artists making drawings in the world today.

Jason Franz
Executive Director, Manifest
April 2006

 

 

artists featured in the book

 

Jessica Bechtel

Tamie Beldue

Robert Craig

Rick Finn

Felice Grodin

Basil El Halwagy

Cindi Harper

Deborah Harty

Julie Hill

Jennifer Jenkins

Kevin T. Kelly

Jeff Leake

Miranda Maher

Armin Mersmann

Carrie M. Nixon

Daniel O'Connor

Trevor Ponder

Kristen Robinson

Deborah Rockman

Alex Roulette

Michelle Rozic

Benjamin Shamback

Sandra Sharp

Kathleen Thum

Aaron Tinder

Dan Wickerham








68 page full-color perfect bound 9" x 10" softcover book available for purchase at Manifest Gallery,
Amazon.com, or here.




The Manifest 2005 National Drawing Annual is Sponsored by:



Best Print Company

 

Copyright © 2006-2011 Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center - Manifest Press