It’s been over seven years since my artist residency here Aferro. The large drawings that I started making during that time still continue today. Currently, I’m working on this series drawn with charcoal and based on the scorched bark on Redwood trees (as pictured here in this 5×8 foot drawing that is still in progress).

Because I am interested in creating a sense of vastness and intimacy in my overall work with drawing, there is something in working at this size and increased scale that makes the work feel much more intimate and difficult to get psychic distance from, as compared to working on a drawing in a smaller size – one that lies on a table. Perhaps this sense of heightened intimacy comes from the working process: that regardless of the dimensions of the work, my eyes, hand, body and tools share the same distance from the surface of the work.  With that ratio, drawing large feels the equivalent of physically laying on the drawing itself.  It explains the feeling that I’m inhabiting the work.