The Common Denominator: Part II, The White Drawings

  The White Drawings are multi-referential, as is unavoidable when one works intuitively. For me they represent an investigation into the relationship between a subject and its environment, creating a narrative on the evolution and development of organic life on Earth. These drawings also examine how ideas may change, die, and become reborn, forming their living carriers and in turn being shaped by those carriers. I began this series in 2005, just before exhibiting all 10 Black Drawings at the Roxbury Open Studios. I wanted to create an a series conceptually opposite the black drawings, so I selected white paper, and oriented the paper as a landscape instead of as a portrait. I used the same materials and the same scale as with the black drawings. The intersection of civilization and wilderness, as in a large highway surrounded by forest on both sides, inspired the beginnings of these works. The first white drawings where inspired by gesture drawings I made in my sketchbook with pen, while sitting in the passenger seat of a car driving to Boston from New York. I projected the sketchbook's gesture marks onto large sheets of white paper, copying the intricate lines onto the larger scale. Interpreting suggestions in the copied lines, I composed dynamic interconnected three dimensional organic images. While working, a sort of order, narrative, or timeline began to appear, suggesting milestone moments and fundamental developments earth's biology. 8 of the 10 white drawings have been completed. With the remaining two I hope to emphasize my vision for these works, and I hope they draw conclusions on fate and future for organic life, humanity, and the legacy of our ideas.