DRAWING CHALLENGE VII
We are thrilled to announce Grace DeGennaro, Frances Hynes, Erick Johnson, and Jennifer Printz as the featured contestants of our Drawing Challenge VII, which was inspired by Correspondences, a poem by Charles Baudelaire, which is part of Les Fleurs du mal (1857).
We would like to thank the artist Catherine Drabkin for suggesting these lines.
Nature is a temple where living pillars
Let escape sometimes confused words;
Man traverses it through forests of symbols
That observe him with familiar glances.
Like long echoes that intermingle from afar
In a dark and profound unity,
Vast like the night and like the light,
The perfumes, the colors and the sounds respond.
There are perfumes fresh like the skin of infants
Sweet like oboes, green like prairies,
—And others corrupted, rich and triumphant
That have the expanse of infinite things,
Like ambergris, musk, balsam and incense,
Which sing the ecstasies of the mind and senses.
Frances Hynes, House, Whale, handprints and compressed charcoal on Strathmore 100% cotton paper, 19 x 25 inches
“This work is part of a series of about 60 drawings. I think it has a humorous aspect to it, which comes out in my work from time to time, and a quality I think is rare in art. I feel an affinity to architectural imagery and often use the simple image of the Cape Cod style home in which I grew up and where I still live. I also like to play with art materials and often work with my hands, and include organic imagery as well. I feel the drawing allows the viewer to imagine some situation, perhaps in relation to this current Corona Crisis we are living through right now.”
- Frances Hynes, 2020
Grace DeGennaro, Geometry 50 (Nightbloom), 2017, watercolor on Somerset paper, 30 x 22 inches
”I create minimal compositions based on traditional symbols and sacred geometry. The paintings and works on paper bridge Eastern and Western thought through ancient uses of pattern, symmetry and iconic symbolism found in traditional forms such as Byzantine mosaics, indigenous weavings and Tibetan mandalas.”
- Grace DeGennaro, 2020
www.gracedegennaro.com
Jennifer Printz, The Hard Edge, 2020, graphite and Epson Ultrachrome inks on antique paper, 12 x 18 1/2 inches
“I wonder about the imperceptible quality of stars in the noonday sun, what forces hold clouds up in the sky, and what arranges the sundry of the universe. This work is about the relationship of these and many other unknown things and a faith in their existence that is strong enough to try to visualize and recreate them. It is about working towards understanding of the natural world in both a tangible physical way and a subtler spiritual one. Through a progressive buildup of graphite, my hand asserts itself over photographs I have taken of the sky. The process is, to me, a loving process of focused attention and deliberate mark making as well as a meditative means of creating that reflects my visceral energies into the finished work through many hours of prolonged touch. The work then contains within it an intersection of humanity and nature, as well as a vast sense of intrinsic history.”
- Jennifer Printz, 2020
www.jenniferprintz.com
Erick Johnson, Beginning of the Middle #4, 2020, oil on paper, 30 x 22 inches
“There is a mystical longing in the poem I relate to— suggestions of a deeper reality experienced through the senses. I use reductive forms and color juxtapositions to navigate the edge between the perfect and the subjective. The geometry promises precision, while the color relations invite us into the realm of memory, history and affect.”
-Erick Johnson, 2020
www.erickjohnson.com
Sarah Sutro
“I lived in Asia for several years, where I worked with an international group of artists, learning to make natural inks from organic materials. My work infuses transparent layers of color with themes of time, infinite scale, and tabular structure. Large overlapping marks of natural color, and black ink marks depict the intersection of nature and culture, celebrating the aliveness and uniqueness of natural and invented worlds. The work celebrates "correspondences" that Baudelaire describes; the paintings are abstract, yet the work evokes a physical presence.”
-Sara Sutro, 2020
www.sarahsutro.com
Rodney Dickson
“I love working directly from nature, mostly my paintings are done in my Brooklyn Studio but they are informed in part by my drawings from life around me.”
- Rodney Dickson, 2020
Nathaniel Galka, peeking around..., 2020, oil on marble plastered jute on panel with gold leaf, 40 × 32 inches
“My paintings imply how the human hand is creating a false ecosystem and destroying our planet, starting in our own backyards. We are taking away what is indigenous and replacing it with 'ornamental' plantings. We are destroying the natural order of our own landscape. I am creating "post-human gardens", works about how nature will reclaim its balance once we are no longer here manipulating our planet.”
- Nathaniel Galka, 2020
www.nathanielgalka.com
Cody Jones, Untitled Drawing 5, 2020, colored pencil and ink on paper
www.codyjonesart.com
Elisa Decker, Hidden Treasures, 1997, pastel on paper, 25 x 19 inches
www.elisadecker.org
Tony Moore, Fire Painting 13.11.18, 2018, wood-fired ceramic, glass, 15 x 22 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
www.TonyMooreArt.com
Betti Franceschi
www.bettifranceschi.com
Patricia Spergel
“This collaged drawing was made after a basement flood that destroyed all of my graduate school paintings, boxes of old letters and most of our appliances. After the flood I found the user’s manual for the ruined hot water heater in a kitchen drawer and decided to make collages with the pages.”
Alicia Rothman, Pathway, 2020, oil on panel, 8 x10 inches
www.aliciarothman.com
Jennifer Viola, Untitled (Air Conditioner Drawing), 2020, acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, graphite, collage on black paper, 40 x 30 inches
Ray Ciarrocchi
”My drawing is of the Susquehanna River at the moment when the sun light is almost spent and the shadows deepen, but the rivers reflected light becomes even more intense and a certain pregnant silence prevails. A fleeting, magical moment. The drawing was made in my studio from sketches and notes made at the riverbank.”
Tara Mahapatra, Gravity # 2, 2019, ink on paper, 39 x 28 inches
www.taramahapatra.com
Deanna Sirlin, Throughout, 2020, acrylic on panel, 12 x 12 inches
www.deannasirlin.com
Julie Shapiro, Traveling Through, 2020, oil on canvas, 27 x 20 inches
www.julieshapiroart.com
Jane Dell, Up Close, 2020, acrylic and oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches
www.janedell.com
”My current paintings and mixed media collages incorporate shapes and gestures that are inspired from fleeting glimpses of memory that reflect associations and surreal metaphors from nature.The contrast of hard edge geometric shapes with organic forms lends itself to a visual tension I strive for in the work, and color is an expressive function that contributes to enhance a non-linear narrative. Throughout the process, as each painting gathers complexity, meaning often moves beyond abstraction without embracing figuration or representation.”
Eric Rhein, Leaf Winged Male, 1999, wire, paper, and found objects, 26 1/4 x 21 x 3 1/4 inches
Carol Diamond, Adirondack Pines I, Conte on paper, 18 x 24 inches
www.caroldiamond.com
Friederike Oeser, Les Fleurs du Mal, 2020, oil pastel and collage on paper, 8 x 8 inches
www.friederike-oeser.de
Moses Hoskins, Untitled 9, part polyptych, 2020, oil on canvas, 54 x 54 inches
www.moseshoskins.net
Tanzanight, A Receptive Alcove for Our Innermost Desires, 2019-2020, acrylic, black mica flakes, watercolor, and Sumi ink on Arches Aquarelle 140 lb. hot-pressed paper, 31 x 25 inches
www.tanzanightvisualartist.com
Ute Hoffritz, Venus I, 2012, concrete, 8 1/4 x 7 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches
www.ute-hoffritz.de
Susan Moss, Colorsphere V, 2020, oil and oil crayon on canvas, 96 x 88 inches