Artist Statement

MY LANGUAGE IS LINE, how my drawings are made

Lines are composed according to a deep grammar within me. When I make one line, it determines the placement, shape, and character of the next. The third line grows out of the first two, and the process continues. It is almost deterministic.

Somewhere in my brain, this grammar expresses itself through the movement of my hand—move, lift, place, and move again. I don't consciously decide what the next line should be, but I have intuition about where it should go and what it should be like. I know almost immediately when a line is right and also when it is wrong. In the same way, I almost know when a drawing is correct and finished. The grammar seems to know when the sentence/paragraph/story is complete.

I do not know what this function is in my brain, or why I have it. I cannot explain how it works except through the lines themselves. I can tell you about it, but I cannot go inside it and explain it.

It is a mystery.

My drawings are, in a sense, the visible record of that mystery.