Objects of Intrigue
Some of these wool drawings are still available in my online sculpture shop.
Wool drawings are images created when I push wool fibers through paper with a notched felting needle, using the colored wool to define line and shadow.
The subjects of these ‘Object of Intrigue’ drawings are amalgamated forms blending details from the natural world. I borrow from the seed pods, bony structures, folds of flesh, geological features, and growth patterns I observe in my everyday walks through my neighborhood, visits to natural history museums, and research. Recognizable tidbits recombined in novel ways can appear warm and inviting but also foreign and even strangely menacing. Like nature itself the depictions suggest cycles of growth, aging, death, and regeneration-- all uncontrollable phenomena that proceed regardless of human understanding or will.
The open-endedness of vaguely recognizable forms encourages engagement through curiosity: the viewer’s attempt to categorize the unfamiliar, to draw comparisons to known objects, and to understand their significance. Closer examination of the drawings reveals another layer of novelty: from a distance what appear to be ink, charcoal, or pencil marks are actually fibers affixed through the paper.
My ‘Objects of Intrigue’ wool drawings are a way to communicate my own amazement at the mystery of life around me, a means to share the act of paying attention, slowing down, and looking closely amid a world of distraction, speed, and overwhelming information. I want to engage the viewer visually and provoke questions. I want to captivate by means of shared curiosity. I want to create an opportunity for the experience of wonder: that feeling that momentarily takes you outside of yourself yet leaves you feeling connected.