The journal is a molten, liminal space that is half in and half out of the conscious, physical world, so it can do things, hold things, stimulate things that are not solid or predictable. It is its own demesne and can nurture ideas that are insubstantial, liquid and fragile and that require a sort of semi-conscious state of receptivity. In fact many of the drawings in these journals begin with my eyes closed because I find seeing too clearly overrides the insubstantial germs of idea and image. Seeing at the beginning tends to force preconceived visual goals, things like insuring closure of outlines, hard divisions of figure and ground identity, and ordinary, predictable composition.

I use the journal to straddle verbal and visual ideas. Sentence fragments like haikus occupy one side of the page while images precipitate on the poetic spine of the words on the other side.

The Folios are like the next step from the journal, the expansion of the liminal journal quality into something more like solid form. Each Folio is a suite of about 10 drawings that relate to an overarching poetic spine, such as the one in this video, which is called “Plumbing and Wiring.” I have always loved books, and perhaps more in this digital age where so often the physical object is missing. I like handling the paper, I like the traditional tools and human pace of the bookbinding process. I like that each drawing page becomes part of something larger and can be less heroic itself.