Welcome

Dear Reader, 

I have always loved drawings. Abstract drawings, especially. As one who draws abstract forms, I like the directness of reaching into that strange, electric encounter between hand and object. It is prospecting for surprises.

Aside from exemplifying what is possible, drawing is fun. Intrigue unspools from the moment hand and tool touches the surface. From the delight of the doodle to the mighty power of line to densities of pigment, the endeavor of drawing abstractly resembles an intrepid traipsing through an inventory of line, form, color and space. All that is required to embark on this quest is a curiosity for exploration. No risk, no fun!

There are no rules or regulation in the drawing galaxy. Abstract drawing is unfolding alchemy that has yet to be articulated. When I venture in, my exploration is always new. Par the course, there is dealing with composition and amidst all the actions to disassemble and reassemble. Noodle. Wrangle. Retool. It takes moxie. When you have moxie you need the tools to match.

Here I must make note of my loyal commentators; pencils, fingers, stump, erasers, dirt, pastel. The materials list, limitless. With kind thanks to the paper which I often scrub in the sink, only to be bathed in pigment again, wash, sand, score, tear and draw.  It is an unceremonious vault of uncertainties that blank piece of paper to which I headlong add logic and error. Logic and error can make vibrant partners.

Whether a willfully minimal haiku or a complex knot of pattern, each drawing is a foreign land where the language is occupied solely by the wielder of a cadre of tools. The great vacant estate of the paper is where I trawl for strategy. In the case of my main squeeze, the pastel, I wander over a granular garden advancing and retreating color molecules. Over and over, I multiply the lines and by turn of an eraser sublimate them. Or, evaporate them. All hands on deck, the surface can look like powdered embroidery, permanently busy.

I present to you this website, inspired by the course I designed formally entitled "Contemporary Abstraction in Drawing” held on the graceful premises of The Woodstock School of Art in New York. I currently teach 6 different classes for adventurous exploratory artists. Joan Oliver, brilliant artist, student and website co-pilot thought creating a site would be valuable for artists in near and far places and I agree. We have set about  our task. The moniker of the course and thus this group of artists has come to be known as The Drawing Galaxy. 

This website is an offering of the visual intrigue elemental to individual artists in their singular imaginative space where they handily wield an arsenal of tools and pigment alongside their intellectual ferment. These are artists who present critical work to our contemporary society.

I stand honored to observe, contemplate and comment upon their deliberation with the language of Abstraction and Drawing.

Long live The Drawing Galaxy!

Meredith Rosier, 2016