Black Water
Pencil on paper
16.5" x 11.5"
2002

I started and finished Black Water in 2002, at the age of seventeen. This complex drawing was my first real effort at a serious pencil drawing, and I worked on it in silence every evening for four months. The work was entirely improvised, and I had no idea where my mind would lead me in subsequent sessions.

My poor memory, coupled with the drawing’s age, means that I can barely recall any of its details. Its familiarity to me rivals my audience’s, and I am often stumped when asked what a particular image represents! This is just as well, for describing each part of the puzzle image by image would greatly distract one from its predominant role as a singular entity. As with most of my artwork, dismantlement serves only to cloud its intentions.

I designed this drawing to be a barrage of contrived chaos that would serve to distil or even tranquilise the viewer’s mind, rather than enkindle or simply confound it. When assaulted in such fashions, the mind tends to detach itself from the intricacies and view the subject in a more elementary, and consequently more objectively truthful, manner.