DRAWING CHALLENGE XI
We are pleased to announce Maya Ciarrocchi, Chris Costan, Blinn Jacobs, Courtney Puckett, and Carol Warner as the featured contestants of our Drawing Challenge XI
which was inspired by words from bell hook's
"Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope" (2003)
We would like to thank the artist Frank Schellace for submitting these lines.
"Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community."
- bell hooks, 2003 -
Courtney Puckett, Populus, 2020, marker, pen, and collage on paper, 14 x 18 inches
”My drawings and collages are two-dimensional conceptual maps for working intuitively in three-dimensions. They generate ideas for my human-scale, found object and repurposed textile sculpture. Currently, I am thinking about how bodies physically connect and how communities are ideologically formed. In a new series of collages, I color and arrange old quilt patterns into geomantic figures. This particular collage is in the formation of a geomantic 'populus' figure which represents a bird's eye view of an assembly of people. Geomancy was a Renaissance method of divination that interprets lines or textures on the earth's ground. There are 16 geomantic figures used as symbols to represent the divinations, or states of the world.”
- Courtney Puckett, 2020
www.courtneypuckett.com
Blinn Jacobs, Ad-infinitum #3, 2020, Ever, Casein, oil pastel on incised gatorboard of different thickness, balsa wood, 20 3/4 x 19 1/2 inches
“The hexagon or parts of it, have been the foundation of most of my work throughout my career inspired by the benzene ring, the basis of life. It connects all the diversity of life on a fundamental level.
Whether it is the visible phenomenon that bees best demonstrate, or the 60 million year old stepped hexagonal basalt formations of the Giants Causeway on the North Coast of Ireland, it is what these pieces intend to address, communicate, and explore in my visual language.
The wooden strip on the outside edge is an extended line to drawn attention to the adjacent “negative” wall space. It also infers the continuation of the hexagonal module that can repeat without end. The painted shapes within the piece are stepped (different thicknesses) creating a more pronounced division. The incised surface pattern, made more visible with oil pastel, unites the individual shapes with the totality of the planes reflecting an interaction of different colors and transparency.”
- Blinn Jacobs, 2020
www.blinnjacobs.com
Maya Ciarrocchi, The Weight, 2020, monotype and ink on paper, 16 x 12 inches
“After the murder of George Floyd and during the ensuing protests, I started working with a series of photographs I shot during a residency in Poland last year. I had never known exactly what to do with them but then during the protests, I channeled my grief into a series of trace monotypes using the photographs as a reference. Here I have chosen an image from the series that shows the outline of a figure with a drawing on her back. The drawing could be a tattoo or a cut. The figure is Katarzyna Pastuszak, a Polish dancer who was at the residency. The image on her back is a detail of the Flossenbürg concentration camp near the boarder of Germany and Czechoslovakia. Kasia is not a person of Jewish ancestry, nevertheless her mother was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.
As a person of Ashkenazi descent, I left for the residency in Poland with feelings of dread. I knew by going there I would confront many unanswered questions and many ghosts. What I did not expect was that by confronting these fears I could see how we all, regardless of ancestry, carry their weight. We are connected in life and death, in anguish and in joy. As bell hooks tells us, "Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer," It is indeed easier to sit in our silos of uniformity, but reaching out to difference and even strangeness can open up the world, if we only let it.”
- Maya Ciarrocchi, 2020
www.mayaciarrocchi.com
Chris Costan, Flesh of My Flesh, VIII, Gouache, acrylic, watercolor paper, 10 x 13 inches
”The idea of a dominator culture has been on my mind for a long time. In recent years I've been learning more about history and the patterns that repeat throughout much of the world. What hooks says is all true and yet in some way it seems that often human beings are so wrapped up in survival that they submit out of necessity because of the fear and chaos. Working on a series of 12, titled Flesh of My Flesh with these concerns in mind they are about "dominators" and dominator culture. This piece alludes to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer, whose alias was, "destroyer of worlds". The king's faceless hair and headgear is pictured in this small piece. My infatuation with the ancient world is real, but also dashed with the realization that much of the world is dominated by a lust for power and wealth. And we find ourselves in that place now as well.”
- Chris Costan, 2020
www.chriscostan.com
Carol Warner, To Gather Paradise, 2020, acrylic, pencil and ink on canvas, 22 x 28 inches
“I was raised in the Quaker faith and continue this practice as an adult. I believe all voices should be heard. It's so important to create safe spaces for discernment. Individual truths, shared and seasoned in the context of deep communal listening, evolve into greater truths. It's my prayer that we are at a moment of "convulsive change" in which the radical act of deep listening becomes a societal norm. "To Gather Paradise" is personal and reflects the sorrow and hope that I believe we all share at this moment in time. Raised in a mixed race and interfaith family, I know how important it is to acknowledge a person's humanity more than relying on any one ideology or belief system.”
- Carol Warner, 2020
www.carolwarnerstudio.com
Anita Pantin, digitally generated Moving Drawing video. (frame)
www.anitapantin.com
Alice Zinnes, Descent of The River Gods, pen & ink with colored pencil on paper, 2 3/4 x 4 5/8 inches
www.AliceZinnes.com
Jackie Tileston, Everything is Everything #1, gouache and collage on paper, 30 x 22 inches
www.jackietileston.com
Tony Moore, I Am He, 1991, Flashe on paper, 78 x 102 inches
www.TonyMooreArt.com
John McDevitt King, Bitter Time, 2020, ghost monoprint on paper, image: 14 x 12 inches, paper: 28 x 22.5 inches.
www.johnmcdevittking.com
Dane Goodman, water walking, trace drawing, ink on paper, image size: 14" x 11 inches, paper size: 26 1/2 x 19 inches
www.estradafineart.com
Soonae Tark, Untitled, 2019, acrylic and pencil on shaped paper, 10 x 6 inches
www.soonaetark.com
Laura Karetzky, Unison; choral1, 2019, oil on wood, 10 x 8 inches
www.LauraKaretzky.com
”The first time I ever had to communicate on an analog video device, I remember the mind-stretching experience of being in the same room and yet not. It affected me so profoundly that I never recovered; my understanding of space was forever changed. Part of what struck me at the time was that I found myself forming designs with the iconography and moving it around my screen in live-time as I chatted. I could do astonishing things, like place myself inside my partner's mouth, literally inhabiting his words, or put myself on his forehead like a bindi, like his third eye; like I could see what he was seeing. Since the Covid19 quarantine, as we wholly rely on live media platforms to perform our daily functions I am wondering: Who is the "self" on the screen? More than ever before, we are asked to be in our bodies and out of our bodies at the same time. It is forcing our brains to evolve to a different understanding of autonomy and community.”
Suejin Jo, Blue Orange Meltdown, oil on canvas, 60 x 36 inches
Tara Mahapatra, Current, 2020, pencil on paper, 20 x 26 inches
www.taramahapatra.com/
Judith Wolf, Spaces in between, 2018, etching, 11 1/2 x 6 inches
www.zeamaysprintmaking.com/galleries/members-galleries/judith-wolf
Eric Banks, Dark Rain, 2020, walnut ink on map, 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
Marne Meisel, Asbestos Collage
”This collage of Asbestos advertisement shows a trope of American Life from a 1950s magazine. Consumerism was taking over and everyone was trying to be the same in order to "live the dream" This collage shows dystopia and poor decisions regarding promoting violence in order to be normal during that time.”
Robert G. Edelman, Interaction, 2020, ink, charcoal, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches
www.robertgedelman.com
Deanna Sirlin, for bell, 2020, mixed media on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches
www.deannasirlin.com
Nina Meledandri, Closer Through Difference, 2020, handmade paper: recycled & abaca with yagruma leaf & gypsyweed, 7 1/2 x 5 inches
gallery.meledandri.com
Ani Rosskam, Day Reflects Nights Shadow, mixed media, 13 x 13 inches
Linda Gottesfeld, Untitled Blue Loss, 2020, ink on paper, 8 x 10 inches
“This print and ink on paper Untitled: Loss reflects presence and absence and, suspended moments in-between time."
Julie Shapiro, Junctions, 2019, oil on canvas, 42 x 40 inches
www.julieshapiroart.com
Elisa Decker, Unfurled, 26 June, 2020, archival pigment print, 12 x 16 inches
www.elisadecker.org
Friederike Oeser, Was zusammen haelt (WHAT UNITES US), oil pastel on paper, 39 2/5 x 39 2/5 inches,
www.friederike-oeser.de
David Behl
Kathryn Hart, Ink Drawing No. 10, ink on tan paper, 12 x 9 1/2 inches
www.KathrynHart.com
Gerhard Lang, Folium non descriptum, New York City, 2013, frottage, graphite on paper, 8 1/5 x 5 3/10 inches
www.gerhardlang.com
Charles Luce, Critical Mass #1, 2015, gouache, digital prints labels, rubber stamps on Chiri (Thailand) paper, 37 x 25 inches
www.charlesluceart.com
Alicia Rothman, Lockdown, 2020, oil and handmade stencils on yupo paper mounted on board, 8 x 10 inches
www.aliciarothman.com
Jane Zweibel, Microcosm, 2014, Oil and acrylic on mattress, 50 x 80 inches
Ute Hoffritz, Cave of the Heart, 1997, alabaster, 8 x 10 inches
www.ute-hoffritz.de