drawing

I sought relief from the machinic bounds of my software practice in figure drawing — an immersion in the organic. Charcoal drawing is messy. The human body is an infinitely fascinating and diverse source of forms to study, feelings to have, and meanings to contemplate. In the 20 weeks at  23rd Street Studio, Michael Markowitz exhorted us to focus on feeling, encouraging a drawing practice based in instinct and authenticity. It was a struggle, not just with my clumsy hands, but to focus my conceptually oriented mind in a different way.

I don’t draw. I write code that becomes drawing by a machine. Though I have art training, I never really learned to draw that well. I’m a conceptualist. I dwell mostly in the realm of ideas. I explore the aesthetic shadows of thinking.

So what interested me, and motivated my time in Michael Markowitz's 23rd Street Studio, was the interplay between my own mind and body's habits and tendencies, and the possibilities of paper and charcoal — which are also distinct and particular.