A couple months ago I was waking up from a dream and I saw a vision of this piece. The day before, in the studio, I had blocked out the large kelp on watercolor paper, because I was just going to do an abstract piece like I had been doing. But during my hypnopompic state I saw a body, my body encompassing the kelp as though it was a spine. Or the vagus nerve perhaps.
I am not a stranger to these visions. I often get them before starting a project or when I’m stuck and don’t know where to go with work.
I’ve been considering for a while adding figure into my work since it is becoming more and more personal. About the connection to my body and healing through co-regulation with nature and others. But also, my mind did NOT want to draw figurtively again!
Figure drawing was how I came back to art in my twenties and I spent days and nights in figure classes and drawing sessions in Los Angeles and Seattle. And then I was an illustrator for 15 years and I associate drawing with all of that. Part of me REALLY did not want to draw again because abstraction helps me break free from restraints and feels so good.
My mind was saying NO to coming but my intuItion was saying YES. So the next day I broke out my graphite and began drawing. And this figure just emerged. All of my figure work muscle memory just came back. And as I looked at it, I began to cry. I was so representational of what is / has been happening in my body.
I will share more when the piece is finished, but for now…here’s where it’s going.