Aleutian Light

18" x 24" charcoal

Prudence is Back
from Israel

18" x 24" india ink

18" x 24" inches
india ink

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These drawings were part of the Oakland Museum of California exhibit, "The Naked Pencil: Ten Artists Draw the Figure" in the fall of 2007. Like many artists, I have humbled myself to the discipline of figure drawing as an art in itself and as a way to continually challenge myself, to explore new directions.

For me drawing is a profoundly acoustical gesture. When it works, it is rhythmic, tonal and full of life. It is an extraordinary opportunity to capture movement and stillness, to be deeply attendant to the rhythms of life – the rhythms of the world, the body and the soul.

Most of these drawings were done in less than 5 minutes. Such a practice is both fiercely conceptual, the eye needs to grasp so much so fast, and vastly spontaneous. Things need to just happen, the process takes over.

People often ask me, "you are writer. . .and an artist?” as if these were two contradictory practices. But for me both these activities have their root in the fundamental gesture of mark-making: mark-making as expression, as a thought process, and in the end, as a devotional practice – devotion to a certain spirit of life, to kindness, good heart, to courage. This is where things begin and end for me, why I pick up a pencil in the morning, whether it be to put words on a page or encircle a figure with lines.

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