Kathy Carl
(Forty Bragg, CA)
Artist Website
Looking Out Back, Ink drawing, 17"x14"
"My Life Lines" -- Kathy Carl
I am a member of the Mendocino Figure Drawing Collective, a weekly
drop-in resource headquartered since 1990 at the Mendocino Art Center
in Northern California. The drawing that will be included in the "Au
Naturel" exhibit represents a body of work that has become a unique
statement of my personal, recognizable style. I work towards
capturing a pose in the present and creating an immediate finished
drawing. After short-pose warmups and a process of clearing my mind
of outside distractions, a longer pose allows me to enter an almost
trance-like state of attention. It is in this state, I am able to
take my pen and ink and find the contours, forms and negative spaces
of the model's pose. I cannot erase and adjust, therefore must be
fully connected to the process. I know I have entered this state when
I start to notice flashes of past dreams trying to enter my mind. I
just smile and work on. . .enjoying the world I have entered.
Although my drawings may not be perfectly accurate, I try to reveal
the connection I was able to make as I transcribed my personal
vision. I hope my "life lines" show that I was seeing my subject with
something more than just my eyes and defining it with more than just
my hand.