Work in Process: Brush & Ink on Paper

There is a warmth and immediacy working ink on gessoed craft paper.  The ink is ground from Chinese pressed charcoal sticks and also blended with India ink.  The images are brushed swiftly and dry slowly.  The fluid line buckles the paper creating surprising visual textures. Watercolor has always been a favorite medium for me.  Ink pares the palette down, simplifying form and effort. The technique is immediate, but not easy, the ideas remain odd and provocative. It is rewarding to create volumes of something light to transport after many years of making heavy metal sculptures.

This brushed ink on paper project began a few years ago.  It started with the accumulation of paper from commerce, the movement and stacking of furniture, the anthropomorphic reflection of the furniture, and then, as I re-settled into my home, the evident accumulation of chairs in the basement. (dramatic doom music here.) Why do I have this eclectic collection in my basement, and why am I not the only one with this eclectic collection?

Perhaps the appeal of a chair on the curb that it is easily moved, implicit of a new home, remnant of an old home, wooden remains? An empty chair is a welcome relief from the stand, a moment of relaxation, to take a load off.  Yet these images are loaded. This ordinary furniture, discarded, offered curbside, is domestic and also an expression of style, and culture. Chair is a representation, it is not “a chair”. Chair becomes a departure from reality in order to describe reality; a stand in for the body, in relationship, black white and shades of grey. - Anna Shapiro