The Common Denominator: The Black Drawings

The Black Drawings are revelations of creative wisdom framed within the context the artist's transformation and development. The drawings consider the series of events that occur when something comes into existence. These semi-autobiographical works are anchored by their connection to my own artistic development, and liberated through the imagery so that each drawing is a part of a narrative applicable to any artistic growth and furthermore to any creative growth. My intent for these works is that they begin to make evident the existence of a common creative process which binds all artists, all humanity and all creation. I call the common creative process, and the fundamentals which bind all existence, The Common Denominator.

What is The Common Denominator?

Creation of a small work of art may seem incomparable with the big bang or the birth of a child. Yet all creation is art, living or non living. I use my creativity to show that any creative process has the same fundamental stages as another. I refer to these essential states collectively as The Common Denominator (of creativity). The idea of a common denominator, where creative processes are linked is significant because it suggests that one can make a drawing, or any form of art at all, and learn about any other aspect of creativity, such as the origins of the universe, organic evolution, cell structure, human reproduction or God.

The Process and its Significance

The drawings involve searching combinations of spontaneous lines for signs or traces of an image, and then developing those images into a composition. Open-mindedness allows the intuition to see the traces and signs. This intuitive approach is as relevant to The Common Denominator as is the content of The Black Drawings. The approach is an analogy for any the coming into being of anything artful, and the method by which everything is created.

I begin with a vast black space. Lines streak spontaneously across and around the paper, creating curves and circles. Then I step back, and the lines condense and synthesize into form. Using combinations of dark and light, rough forms develop into intricate imagery. If my lines are light, matter stands in place of forms, dark and light can represent cold and hot respectively, and imagery represents planets. Consider the process as beginning with a vast black space, light streaking across the vacuum, condenses into matter, with a combination of hot and cold they become intricate Galaxies, stars and planets.

The Black Drawings and their process are reminiscent of the cosmos its process. At the same time they remind the artist and impression the viewer with content that could not have been preconceived or conjured by intellect. By exposing God/the universe?s roles and relationship with humankind and creativity, the intuitive approach delivers transcendent revelation experience for the artist and the viewer.

 

born: 1980, Racine, WI

education

Wheaton College, BA

selected group shows

The African Winter Artists, Scoally Square Gallery, Boston MA, 2006
Works on Paper, Juried exhibit, Lynn Arts, Lynn, MA, 2006
The Artist Foundation Group Show, The Artist Foundation, South Boston, MA, 2006