
drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar, 2009
22″ h x 30″ w
A selection of drawings from my 2009 MFA thesis exhibition at Pratt Institute.
New York is my hometown. Having recently returned, I find the city’s energy reflected in its people through the rhythms of their movement and the patterns of their shapes and forms. The human body has always been both fascinating and pleasing to me. Like Walt Whitman, the American poet, “I sing the body electric.” A simple gesture can inspire me through its beauty or its connection to a feeling that I remember.
In this body of work, people gather in groups. Neither the narratives nor the settings are certain, but they feel familiar because the places, the gestures and the group dynamics are universal. The drawings are about community. Although I am not in the drawings, I also intend them to be about me, and I imagine myself as one of these people — child or mother, teacher or friend. The repeated pencil strokes and incomplete erasures leave the gestures, narratives and settings open for interpretation as the shapes dematerialize. The smears also suggest volume and contribute immediacy and energy. Smudges suggest atmosphere, an invitation to enter the space and walk among the figures. The drawings express the variety, richness and complexity of my urban experience.
Most of the drawings were created with soft black drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar. They are mounted on tinted paper.

drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar, 2009
29″ h x 21″ w

drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar, 2009
21″ h x 29″ w

drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar, 2009
21″ h x 29″ w

drawing pencil and eraser on frosted Mylar, 2009
21″ h x 29″ w