My Intimacy

untitled land_body scapes

pen and ink on paper
2018 – 2022

While raising a family, during a period of self-imposed creative isolation, I made hundreds of drawings over the course of 20 years. Breaking away from my usual process and methods, I chose to work with pen on paper, starting with small sketchbooks and an array of pens I found lying around (convenient materials). Many of the drawings only took moments to create, as moments were all I had as a busy mother.

My process was to scar, score, and gouge into several layers of paper, carving images in and out of the surface and letting the ink penetrate, spread, and bleed through. I was in search of my mark, my voice, what sort of gesture came naturally to me. I had an intense need to ground myself through my artwork and to find my authentic self.

I chose this way of drawing intentionally, knowing that not a single mark could be erased. It could be drawn over and gouged out, leaving behind a scar, a remanent, but it was, in my mind, forever part of the history of the drawing’s making; similar to a pentimento or, in more literary terms, a palimpsest. I saw these drawing as a form of journaling, reflections on and of the day they were made … and the journey I was on.