Sleep Drawings
The Sleep Drawings began in 2002 and continue through the present date. I began this endeavor without knowing I'd be making them for years to follow.Being ever-interested in the edges of things, I wanted to describe in a drawing what is occurring in the mind the moment sleep takes effect. Since then, it has become a kind of wellspring for my larger works, titles and themes. The drawings begin in waking consciousness. The drawing comes to an end when the body loses wakeful awareness: falling asleep. Being created in the dark with the pad of tracing paper on my chest the markings on the page are only made by the dictation of proprioception or the awareness of spacial memory. The earliest recordings started simply as columns from top to bottom, left to right with one word: Sleep. I noticed the drawings over the past years have evolved into poetic meanderings and linear "mental maps" recounting the day's routine. As time went on the tone became more inward, inquisitive, and pensive. The topics span from existential lyrics for hope, regret, and loss in the the post industrial world. It is a delight to get up in the morning and observe what kind of 'drawing' was made and the night before in the twilight of thought. I often encourage the curious to make a go of it themselves, if only for the novelty of it.
