On Literality in My Drawings

Abstract

There are at least four aspects of my recent drawings that may be considered literal: (1) specific subject matter, (2) articulate image depiction, (3) application of letters, numbers, words and other symbols and (4) poems to accompany allegorically related drawings done as a series. Through the development of these characteristics I have come to recognize two distinct forms of literality: one factual (and specific) and the other literary (and symbolic). Realism is one aspect of literality that I have applied. Four years ago I was using polymer and solvent transfer techniques that produced highly detailed effects [1]. More recently I have begun to develop images in multiple 'stages' that range from the specifically stated to generalized schemas. These stages usually involve several altered versions of a given image, suggesting physical change (cf. Fig. 1). Such image sequences may be experienced as literal if viewed on the basis of their chronology of change (cf. Fig. 2). In 'Figural Movements' (cf. Fig. 1,) the drawn muscles and figure anatomies, although shown in differing scales, are conceptually tied by literal, known connections that they possess outside the drawing. I have used carefully modulated surfaces in order to produce specific, perceivable volumes that amplify the concrete nature of an image (cf. Fig. 1). Such depictions have been predominately imaginary in source, although often literal in effect. I have found that 'abstract' motifs may even acquire a literalness as a result of articulate execution (cf. the grid at top of Fig. 1). Schematically developed images can evoke literal, space-time qualities (cf. bottom of Fig. 1). I have often drawn or painted repeated parallel or broken lines to give an illusion of movement through time and space, as was done by Futurist artists (cf. Figs. 1 and 2). The spaces between these lines may be viewed as 'time modules' having inner sizes that symbolically correspond to time durations. The characteristics of the dividing lines (thickness, crispness, suggestiveness, etc.) effect the possibility for their activity as symbolic time intervals. About two years ago I became interested in some parallels between literary statements and literal,