Drawing

Contact Information

Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street, #409
Philadelphia, PA 19122
e-mail:
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.

Artist Statement

My current body of work, which I began this spring, combines three of my lifelong interests – typography, drawing, and literature.

I believe that the images we remember most vividly have no physical existence, whether places, photographs or paintings. We create them in our mind as we read. Each image is unique because it is brought into being when we integrate the author’s words into our individual life experience.
It is well known that language has the ability to generate images, both in the mind’s eye and as physical representations. Artists paint scenes based on literary works, novels are adapted into films. Sometimes a re-presentation can be more powerful than the source on which it is based.

I would like to suggest that there are instances of literary rendering in which the image is so flawlessly formed by language that it cannot be transposed into another medium. It exists fully (as an amalgam) only in the reader’s mind.

This thought first occurred to me while reading Anna Karenina many years ago. Recently I discussed the novel with a colleague, a history professor. I mentioned a scene in the book which does not play a major role in the plot but which nonetheless remains with me as a persistent image. He remembered well the same passage, though he wasn’t sure why.

While the passages can of course be presented as mechanical facsimiles of printed pages, I believe that by drawing the letters one by one I emphasize the visual quality of the literary image, while imbuing the representation with an aura of uniqueness.

Education

1988
Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
MFA, Graphic Design

1992
Ecole du Louvre, Paris, France
Art History

1983
Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany
Linguistics, Comparative Literature

Residencies

2007, 2010
Visual Arts Residency, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada

2006
Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

Professional Experience

1998 – present
University of Pennsylvania, School of Design, Philadelphia, PA

1994 – 1997
Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA

1988
Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT

Bibliography

2010
Studio Visit Magazine, The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA

2009
New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Edition, The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA

2007
New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Edition, The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA

Selected Exhibitions

Solo

2010
Islanded, The Hall, Inliquid at the Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, PA

2009
32nd Annual Wind Challenge Exhibition, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA

2007
Temporary Places, Rosenberg Gallery, Hempstead, NY

Two-person

2009
Cat Balco and Sharka Hyland, PrattMWP Gallery, Utica, NY

Group

2009
50 Very Small Works on Paper, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA

2nd Bangkok Triennale International Print and Drawing Exhibition, Bangkok, Thailand

2008
Sense of Place, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA

Line and Time and Space, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA

2007
Miniature, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada

Points of Departure, Fox Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Exhibitions Curated

2008
In the Beginning: Exploring Origins in Contemporary Art, Penn Humanities Forum,
Philadelphia, PA
Juror / curator