covid drawings

The pandemic has altered and affected us all, some more devastatingly than others. For me stuck in my bubble I began something unfamiliar which seemed quite apt for the times. The covid drawings project was built on a simple notion of a single-minded process to complete one drawing on 8.5”x 11” card stock every day for a year. I began this journey during the February 2021 lockdown. These drawings are unconscious reflections of the times, non-representational subjective responses to the process through the genre of traditional modeled graphite drawings.  These drawings constitute a strange amalgam of references, a laboratory of images, thoughts, patterns, and creative solutions based on personal interpretations of shape and form. To me, they are two dimensional sculptural forms manipulated in a defined space though the tonality of their form. They are daily insights into how I solved the spatial problems of two dimensionality, a collection of choices made to give rise to more interesting and engaging images. 

The production of the covid drawings posed challenges both emotionally and logistically, with the unanticipated burden associated with committing to a year-long endeavour being one of the biggest surprises. For me this was a project that uncovered the feelings of excitement that came with starting a new project, making it through the doldrums of the middle section and the joy of reaching the end.  

An unconsciously created recurrent theme within most of the drawings were the blank untouched simple shapes encapsulated by shaded complex organic forms of non-representational references. These distinct shapes and forms created a recurring structure to the drawings and for me came to represent moments of untouched purity and hope.  

This is an exhibition of a few selected drawings that look at my intimate daily response to the socially isolating experience in which the pandemic placed me.