CAROLINE HARMAN: DRAWING CONVERSATIONS

CAROLINE HARMAN DRAWINGS

"the day will need to be climbed, vertically"

     charcoal, graphite & pastel on paper

     43” x 29-1/8”

     2012

citizens of nothing

     charcoal, graphite & pastel on paper

     43” x 29-1/8”

     2012

The exhibition title "Drawing Conversations" has its roots in wildly tangential chats on art and meaning, between myself and my friend and fellow artist, Anne Flynn. Anne is an artist, art therapist, Jungian Psycho-Analytical candidate, and student of art history. Her base of knowledge is broad and multivalent. These informal dialogues have spanned over years and oceans. 
Anne possesses talent both in her visual work and her ability to weave into words the often difficult translation of visual language. She gifts us with tangible connections to the seemingly intangible.

When in referring to the connections between author Tracey O' Shaughnessy’s work, "Every Little Thing" and the work of the two visual artists, Anne points out that what Tracey articulates in her essays  is  that "what endures is what is found in the deeply personal, and what endears us to people are their unique foibles rather than their perfection. This premise ties into the visual artist's work as a deeply personal unvarnished expression and that is why we are intrigued or moved by it. In an era of high technology, when the means of production have become so sophisticated, something  as simple as handwritten letter or a personal story, as told by Tracy, become connections to the reality of the lived experience and therefore profoundly meaningful. These drawings reveal something deeply personal that touches a place of feeling that is universally relatable. This relatedness is the antidote to the irony of post modernism and the disassociation of pseudo modernism.” 

(see links below post)

"the pressure of moving air keeps the fragile lung inflated"

      charcoal, graphite & pastel on paper

      33-1/8” x 28-5/8”

      2012

CAROLINE HARMAN
ARTIST"S STATEMENT

At the heart of my work is a candid examination of personal vulnerability and genuine tenderness, and an attempt to render a private experience in which the dropping of the self-protective stance has been a pressing matter of survival. I have attempted to make drawings that reach for a certain kind of freedom from concept or metaphor, allowing a new type of language to arise that describes my own personal confusion and struggle in the face of uncontrollability, dissolution and loss. This inquiry moves beyond the artist as creator, or player, or relative witness, which touches only a part of the overall picture, and drops headlong into the unconscious – into a deep crevasse of uncertainty that echoes the current collective cultural psychological state.

"a queer, when-did-that-happen metamorphosis"

      charcoal, graphite & pastel on paper

      33-1/8” x 28-5/8”

      2012

In the dense weave of space and forms within the drawings, an avalanche of shapes is flimsily held in place by ropes, nets, fences and compressed space. Upward spirals strain away from the downward momentum with the compression-expansion action of a lung, or a ventilator. Most attempts to pin down the verifiably concrete are scrambled. Marks of graphite and charcoal coalesce into gnarled webs. Large expanses heave and twist before mutating into fascinatingly dense and knotty terrain. It is a world where boundaries are fluid and planes are deliberately tipped and upended. The only elements that remain absolute are space and the oscillating energy of a breath.

The intimate, detailed language of drawing forces me to step out of the river of fast time, slowing down so much that I move beyond concept to a place of exposure. The drawing process simultaneously mimics and determines the content of each piece, where nothing is certain, and no outcome is clear. With this type of alchemy, as with any creation mythology, when structures break down, the new forms do not come forth immediately. They emerge out of the chaos as a result of holding the tension of opposites. It is the space where everything previously believed true has begun to disintegrate and become ash. Gradually the remains re-form into deeper, more complex patterns, evolving into a new reality, something as yet unknown. 

"scuttling in vectors"

     charcoal, graphite & pastel on paper

     43” x 29-1/8”

     2012

Tracey O' Shaughnessy Interview on the Faith Middleton Show
The Death of Post- Modernism and Beyond

"Every Little Thing" by Tracey O' Shaughnessy

Tracey O' Shaughnessy Lecture and Book Signing
Drawing Conversations: An exhibition of Drawing by Caroline Harman and Marc Chabot
December 8th, 2012 Lecture and Reception 1PM-4PM 
(Lecture by Tracey O' Shaughnessy begins at 1PM)
The "Field Project"s gallery at Blue Horse Arts and JFoster Music Studios
250 Porter Street, Watertown, CT. 06795
860-417-3243


Cover Art for "Every Little Thing"
 by Danielle Mailer