...and I meant it!

 In my last post, I said I'd report back soon, didn't I?

I've said that a lot of times, and I meant it every single time, even though it often didn't play out that way. But here I am a MERE DAY LATER with something to show you. Bear in mind that a lot that happened last year runs together in the memory pool, but this piece clearly stands out in my mind, because it's my only drawing work from 2020. I made it before COVID-19, or at least before we started taking it seriously. I'd intended to generate one drawing after another, but after the pandemic situation set in, I seemed to lose all patience for pencil work. This piece is titled, 'What Pronoun Did I Use?'

This drawing is considered mixed media, a combination of watercolor, acrylic and graphite. I call works such as this 'drawings' because of the proportion of time spent using each of the media. It may take me just a few minutes to slap on a bit of watercolor here and there, and maybe a couple hours to apply the acrylic, usually in the background areas, but the time spent on the graphite often takes dozens of hours. (Larger work might be in the hundreds!)

The skull is something I've recently started rendering. This would be my second drawing with a skull as the subject. I don't see such an iconic image as creepy, but rather something commonplace that we all possess just under the surface. I've used it as a continuation of a person, who ponders ideas, questions outcomes, and isn't meant to be a symbol of death. Here, our skull is looking in the mirror, contemplating his or her gender. At a glance, it isn't apparent.

Hidden in the dark background is a textured pattern that looks like a slightly tangled beaded doorway. These strands are actually lines of Morse Code, written in dots and dashes. If anyone cares to decipher these phrases, more power to them. It just takes a quarter turn of the artwork, but deciding whether it's clockwise, or counter-clockwise, is part of the challenge. Some lines refer more to the point of the artwork, such as "Politics and the public bathroom", and others have no relation, as in "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine".

You may recall seeing my other skull drawing entitled, 'Enduring the Countdown', which won a prize at the Texas & Neighbors Annual Juried Art Exhibit a few years ago.

I'd been thinking about skulls just prior to that, and I was marveling at how I hadn't given much thought to the one right behind my own face. I was sitting at the table, tracing the 'rim' around each eye with my finger, through my skin, and my husband couldn't help but ask what I was doing. I explained my new fascination with the skull, and how I would be interested in drawing it, if I had one to look at. He immediately ordered a true-to-life skull model used for teaching. I mean, what husband wouldn't jump at the chance to order something so weird, when his wife all but gave him permission?

Both of these pieces of artwork are available for purchase from Graphite Gallery in New Orleans. Their website is https://graphitenola.com/. While these pieces aren't pictured on their site yet, a simple phone call should be enough to accomplish a purchase.

To see these and more of my artwork (mostly unavailable, but fun to peruse), please visit my own website at http://renatekasper.com/.