These drawings and the poems that precede them arose from the thesis work for the MFA that I received from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. For quite some time, I did not include these poems and drawings in what I consider my body of work. This was largely a result of what I felt was an unsuccessful initial presentation alongside images and paintings that, in reality, were really part of a different line of thought. By removing this text and drawings from that initial context, the power inherent in the specific medium comes into focus. It also becomes clear that they are just as much concerned with geometry and territory as later work – albeit expressed in a different medium. At the same time, the reference to an underlying trauma and narrative traced in the text as well as the drawn forms foreshadows the concern for history, trauma, and site that emerges in the practice.
The drawings straddle a literal representation of a space that might be inhabited via a graphic language that draws upon traditional architectural drafting techniques and a non-representational language via the use of raw pigment embedded in a free flowing medium. This contrast between the hard-line graphite and the fluid pigment is intended to develop a tension between an objective and subjective presence on the page – with the latter being tied to a perspective or event that unfolds on the surface and throughout the duration of viewing the collection of drawings. At the same time, the two methods influence each other through how they interact. The hard-line architectural space becomes destabilized to the point where it really is unclear if it represents a reality or merely is a figment of the imagination. This sense is enhanced by the faded nature of some of these spaces and the extent to which they appear as fragments or subject to missing components. The result is a set of drawings that form a story that has disappeared and that can barely be discerned. In the process, room is given for the viewer of the work to imagine their own story and derive their own meaning of the work.