Alaska
Alaska Series: Since I was six years old, I wanted to be a pilot. The Air Force gave me a scholarship at Texas Tech. I took a four year hiatus during graduate school at the University of Texas to satisfy my commitment. This took me out of Texas and gave me the opportunity to travel extensively and to live in new places. I spent a year living in Fort Yukon, Alaska, nine miles north of the arctic circle. I spent a lot of time in this landscape and collected small artifacts that had experienced weather and temperatures from 70 degrees below zero to sometimes almost 100 degrees above.
Found Objects Composition. Photograph. 5" x 7". 1977.
I placed the objects on a black piece of construction paper and photographed them. I would manipulate the negative in the dark room to achieve this effect.
Found objects from my year spent in Alalska. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2018.
This was my first drawing to revisit the Alaska found objects.
Balance. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2019.
Meditation on the Tale of the White Whale. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2019.
I was rereading Moby Dick while making these drawings. The form of the wood object reminded me of a whale and the black background reminded me of the dark depths where the whale roamed. The psychological and mythological quality of the white whale’s image seemed to infuse my thinking as I progressed. Soon the objects became like actors that I could arrange in the abstract space.
Jonah and the Whale. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2019
Continuing the whale metaphor, this drawing suggested the Biblical story. The whale, or Leviathan, has Jonah in its maw. The long vine-like object reminded me of the "hand of God". The crescent shaped object was actually a rodent's tooth and gave me the sense of a waning moon on a dark night.
Drawing with No Particular Purpose. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2019
This drawing took more liberties with my object actors. The curling vine seems to create an encapsulated world and also spreads the focus of the drawing to the entire page.
Sailing the Wine Dark Sea. Pastel on Arches Paper. 22" x 30". 2019
This drawing continues the mythological theme, referencing the Odyssey.