Empresso

Day 10 into a 31 day project with 10 drawings done, and out of those, only 2 are being outright dismissed. That leaves these eight.

The 4 by 4 project as it’s imagined, is being envisioned as an element of a larger body of work that’s being put together specifically for a short hanging at the Empresso Coffeehaus.

Ideally over the span of a month, a third of the work would be hung for 10 days before getting switched out with the next third, which then gets switched out after another 10 days with the last third. 

It’s a rolling show. Approximately 28 small 4″ by 4″ charcoal drawings on paper, 9 medium 9″ by 11″ charcoals, and possibly 3 large works, all rotated through the walls over the span of a month.

The aim of the project is to visually demonstrate that making art part of daily life is a goal that’s both realistic and as an activity itself, has merit outside of the scope of financial gain. Instead, making art is an activity of disciplined discovery that can provide a soft sense of personal satisfaction.

It’s not just rhetoric. The feeling of satisfaction that I’m getting from doing this project has been dramatic. Seeing the work come off the boards each night has been immensely rewarding and has presented itself as a delightful challenge.

Knowing that just over a year ago, I had little to no experience with charcoal, and almost no experience with figurative and portrait drawing, let alone drawing in any real sense, has given this project a very real feeling of accomplishment.

ideally, I’d like to think of this exhibition project as encouragement for others to step up, not to necessarily to out do what’s being presented, (it’s not an intention to set a bar) but to instead just show that we all have permission to share what lights each of us up.