Personal Work_

Inspired by botanical and naturalist imagery, this body of personal work has been for me an outlet to channel an illustrator’s constraints into something enjoyable and productive, to find pleasure in the act of exploration, in the element of surprise – of not knowing how an image will develop.

This exploratory process of mark-making is in stark contrast to my typically rule-based illustration work for clients. Conjuring these pulsating forms has had the effect of a welcome release from the tensions of being assigned what to draw and how to draw it. In hindsight, these drawings feel almost like a record of a long sigh, more heartfelt and intimate than commissioned work ruled by pre-determined guidelines.

While reading through Jasper Johns's Regrets, I found my feelings about the drawings resonating with his about his own work: the subject of these drawings is not the object (or plant) depicted. The subject is the drawing itself: an improvised journey to an unknown destination, line by undulating line, tactile, organic and alive, growing, temperamental, and maybe even revelatory. There is this alterity – this “otherness.” The mystery captivates my attention and stirs a murky longing. The revealed forms, to me, have become evocative of a confrontational icon – a presence – a dim visage of living creatures, not made by human hands, trembling with a visceral energy that is both spiritual and embodied.