MOTIONLESS MOVEMENT

In Vibrations, movement is not created by showing figures running, dancing, or physically moving through space. The movement comes from the drawing itself, from the interaction of line, value, light, shadow, and the spaces between forms. Charcoal gives me a wide range of possibilities. I can make an edge appear sharply in one place, allow it to disappear into darkness in another, and bring it back again somewhere else. A figure may seem solid for a moment and then begin to merge with the space around it. Foreground, middle ground, and background are allowed to shift rather than remain fixed in their traditional places. Light and shadow play an important role in creating that movement. Dark passages push against lighter areas. Forms come forward and then recede. Lines cross through shapes instead of always stopping at their edges. The eye is constantly being asked to move from one part of the drawing to another. This is where the idea of harmonious discord enters the work. There is tension between light and dark, between one form and another, and between what appears solid and what seems to be dissolving. These elements sometimes compete with one another, but they still have to hold together as a drawing. The discord is there, but so is the harmony. Space becomes fluid. The foreground does not always stay in front. The background may suddenly move forward. A line that begins in one figure may continue into another form or disappear into shadow. Nothing is actually moving, yet the relationships between the forms keep changing as the eye moves across the surface. That is what I mean by motionless movement. The people in these drawings may be sitting, standing, working, remembering, waiting, or simply being still. Yet around and through them the drawing remains active. Lines overlap. Values shift. Edges appear and disappear. Forms separate and come together again. The movement is not something added to the subject. It grows out of the way the drawing is constructed.