Many of these drawings were born from Zoom gatherings at the beginning of Covid when I drew alongside other realist artists looking for a way to gather as well as to support the art models who were suddenly out of work. Perhaps two thirds of my drawings are of women, but over half of the hundreds I have drawn, are of the New York model, Vyla Borealis, a long time muse of the inestimable Steven Assael, and a weekly model for me since mid 2020. By virtue of drawing her regularly for years now, I am challenged to create something fresh each time.

Initially, the Zoom sessions were a way to keep our skills in working order through a shared drawing practice. The challenge of Zoom, however, included working with less than stellar camera angles and questionable lighting alongside a live person who behaved as a model normally behaves, ie. breaks were taken, it was time bound, and it was sometimes hard to maintain the pose perfectly. Despite the frustrations, it forced me to dip in to my understanding of anatomy and form since the set up was out of my control. But now, drawing from Zoom is a part of my art life and it is invaluable for challenging me to work with my knowledge as much as with what is in front of me. It’s a perfect example of finding freedom through limitation.

I am classically trained and am in love with the craft of drawing as much as the craft of painting. I am deeply inspired by process —form over content—and defer to there being meaning in form when the form is of high quality. Ingres’s drawings and Zorn etchings are big influences since my natural and cultivated technique is hatching. I had no idea that working with suboptimal conditions would yield a greater grasp of the craft of drawing by forcing me to pull upon my storehouse of imagery almost as much as working from the eye itself. They were meant to be sessions to keep my eye in check, but ended up refining my craft through exercising my imagination.

I would hope there are those as in love with the craft of drawing as I am and would enjoy owning works inspired by such a long and storied tradition.