Title: Found forms

Media: graphite and paint on paper

Dimensions: 57 cm x 85 cm

In this series of drawings the artist explores abstract shapes in conjunction with repetitive mark-making. Dissatisfied with the shapes the mind and hand tend to generate on their own, which can be contrived and overly rationalised, the artist searched for found organic forms, mostly amongst photographic material posted online, that she translated into silhouettes and transposed onto paper via projection. She then proceeded to fill in the large delineated abstract areas with tiny repetitive pencil drawn marks that trace the subtle movement of the hand, effectively a record of time passing as the pencil softens and darkens with prolonged usage, then gets sharpened, producing fine hard lines for a while before softening and darkening again.

The final drawings read as an amalgamation of something given (by the found photographic image) and something organically created by the human hand. The viewer is made aware that they reference a kind of observed reality or figuration yet this is, however, rendered largely unrecognisable due to the process of flattening and level of abstraction the found shapes have undergone. As such, they come across as quietly puzzling and strangely perplexing, which is in keeping with much of the artist’s other work that is cool, understated, yet not without the human touch, humour, and emotional resonance.