Far from simply a transcription of visual, experience drawing is both a phenomenal and a physical act; It uniquely engages Eye, Mind and Body. Whether epically large or intimately small, representational or abstract, intensely observational or kinetically performative, Drawing is a choreography of observation, interpretation and movement. It is direct and directed, but nevertheless contingent upon the vicissitudes of both mind and body, their inherent capacities and limitations.
Drawing is, in essence, creation in its pure, messy and imperfect form. It is elemental, and its fascination lies in its power to affirm the nascent image while declaring the presence of the mark-maker. The marks made are the trace, the footprints in the sand, attesting to a presence as well as the absence left behind in its passing.
A stylus, perhaps a stick of charcoal or graphite, is dragged across a surface, leaving a trail in its wake. More marks follow. Narrow and broad, tenuous or distinct, there might be no particular purpose or end-product other than the act itself. This done, the marks might be obliterated, reduced to a fog of tones, mere shadows of their former self; and the process is begun again. The artist suppresses the impulse to render. Yet whether due to body mechanics or random imperfections in the surface itself, patterns do emerge suggesting forms in space. Some forms are reinforced by overdrawing.
Drawing’s fascination, even when representational lays not only in the image produced but in that product’s constituent components, (i.e. lines, contours etc.). Because the mark-maker (artist, draftsperson et al) recording, representing, vis-à-vis, without the intercession of the device ( camera, computer or other mechanical apparatus) he/she is no longer a passive witness to the perceptive process but rather now is an active participant. Thus, they are Creator, creating something within the nothingness before them. Drawing is then an inherently exploratory and declarative act by which the mark-maker not only records and represents but also creates their own non-verbal, non-linguistic index or symbols relating to the visual and psychological experience of drawing, and engages directly with the subject and the medium. There are no machines, no intervening devices to come between the creator and the created. The drag of pencil against the surface is tactile, immediate, and real. Through direct touch the artist negotiates the drawing, it is also through this touch and the tactile as well as visual qualia that the drawing also communicates with the artist.
Mark Gerard McKee 