My progress is my product. I create expansiveness through constraints with my hands and mind.

 “I draw,” I tell people. To me, drawing means using any creative agency in the hands of the artist to transcribe the composite of their internal world. Drawing is my primary means of transcribing anything I see, feel, and think, and it maintains a high level of flexibility for communicating my thoughts from simple sketches to advanced, finished works. To aimlessly run a pencil on a paper is to draw; to handwrite through a fountain pen is to draw; to erase using a damp paper towel is to draw; to break apart a flat surface is to draw; to stick wet hair onto a bathroom wall is to draw; to stare at an object and zone out is to draw…. The possibilities for drawing are endless. They spread. They invade. They develop through over-layering across time and space.

The language of drawing is simple—the mind thinks and commands. The hands react. The mind receives then re-reacts to the hands’ response…. To draw is nothing more complicated than “I make what I think happen” with the hands and mind, and the bonds between the two will grow more rigid when I learn to associate the coordination as I travel across distinct techniques and media. Drawing captures my observations and sensations, allowing me to hold onto fleeting moments from my direct experiences. Choices can be made subconsciously with improvisation, or I can carefully handle each step for the most calculated outcome. The method truthfully documents my thought patterns rather than simply the result does. That is, process becomes the “hands” that not just carry out assigned missions, but also constantly dispatch stimulating signals back to the artist, the “mind”, for interaction. Process feeds off me, and vice versa. It is always this process that intrigues me the most.

After all, I see pushing my creative concerns to the boundaries of medium-handling as chaos that can be controlled through escalating informed decisions. I embrace my impulse and intuition in the mark-making process, letting go of control while maintaining the composition. In doing so, I aim to create a sense of freedom and spontaneity that reflects the memory dwelling in the coordination of my hands and mind in exploring the tenuous balance between discipline and madness, progress and product.

My role is a vessel that maintains control over the composition while letting wild thoughts flow freely. Drawing is akin to telling tales of a tree—it can expand infinitely, but constraints are necessary to make that intention visible. That expansiveness is named after my will, and those constraints are named after my experience, mediated through my hands and mind.