Anthropocene Specimen Drawings
DRAWINGS
Drawings are pen, ink, and gouache on Stonehenge, Fabriano or Arches papers. They range from 22”x30” to 26” x 44”.
In my drawings, ambiguous human and botanical biological systems combine to inform fictionalized observed living subjects. These drawings are imagined specimens. The specimens posit the notion that growth and transformation can prosper even though we humans observe a constant stream of violence, environmental disaster, and species extinction. I often wonder how we process the influx of our daily and global realities and wherein the body we absorb them. As they emerge I am aware that the lived experience in my body is vast and enigmatic. In the face of what seems to be their inevitable extinction, they harness resistance and thrive in this era of human impact, the Anthropocene.
My drawings investigate the interplay of resilience, play, and ache. The specimens are triumphant adaptations - self-sufficient systems. I am interested in the notion of psychosomatic scar tissue in relation to psychological and biological systems.
I understand this body of work as abjections – systems or beings we don’t want to look at but are forced to by their hyper clarity; their seductive yet somewhat grotesque elements. I identify with them, I am repulsed by them and ultimately I am curious to witness these forms emerge.
