APRIL DRAWINGS

An extension of the Life in One Breath series, the April Drawings are the result of a 2007 residency with the South Carolina State Park system. Each of the drawings is a document of several moments spent with the animal.

I draw life. I use the word 'draw' to mean 'extract', like to draw blood or draw a breath. During each drawing experience, I attempt to surrender self while I distill the life of the subject through mark-making. Because in this endeavor my most honest marks are the first ones, the drawings on these panels are collections of only the raw, initial renderings of life. Each panel contains only one individual animal, drawn several times. One beetle, one spider, one bird. These drawings are not pictures of the physical structure of the animals, rather they are documents of a focused experience of empathy with another living thing.