Sospiro and Others
Sospiro 15	Open Book 23	Pinned Grid 6	Verso 13

My drawings are extremely reductive, skeletons in a sense, of the paintings. Here, the grid is more visibly the essence of my work. My palette is pared down — black and white — and my materials are spare: thread as a linear element and powdered graphite as a wash. Wax remains essential to most of the work.

The 20 drawings in Sospiro (1997) have the most in common with my work on canvas, not only in their markings but in the way I have used layers to suggest depth. The layers are washes of alcohol and graphite powder applied with a brush. The graphite remains in the paper once the alcohol evaporates.

Thread lets me create a malleable, dimensional line. In Open Book (1993), a series of 30 small, wax-impregnated drawings about seven inches square, I stitched thread onto paper in a small centered grid. The anchored line springs into a less orderly arrangement at the loose end. In Pinned Grid (1995), a 24-drawing series on the same small-size paper, straight pins bring the grid into higher relief. The pins rigidly counterpoint the randomness of the threads they skewer.

The 36 wax-impregnated drawings in the Verso series (1998) are the most reductive of these works — phantom drawings, almost. The line, thread again, lies flat against the paper in an arrangement of parallel or perpendicular lines. Sometimes I eliminated the thread and just incised a line into the wax. Because the markings are so minimal and contained, some observers have likened these three series to haiku. It is a response I had not intended but warmly welcome.

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