PENCIL DRAWINGS ON PAPER - 2018/19

Nature is my source of inspiration – like many artists before me. My working process could be like that of a scientific process, but as an examination through an artistic approach.

To work with the drawings is like a developing process  in a dark room. The expression becomes the result of an examination, a search in details after something I do not know what is ...   

I work with a kind of system that contain several single formats put together to form a larger drawing. The drawings contains a large number of copies of the same photograpic image which is interpreted through drawing. The modules are a photographic image taken from a tree – in one of the system – is the bark, in other it is the roots and the third one shows forms that grows out of the surface.

The photograpic image is transfered via a risograph onto a surface that is suitable for drawing. The visual intrepretation happens in the organic structure, in the space between, in the rythms and in the lines. The drawing process is like drawing in pixels – while each module is a A3 format. Throughout the prosess the drawings are composisioned, arranged and rearranged, with the intention to form a new image still unknown and unseen - while some of the underlying and known image is still visible like fragments and fractals of the wholeness.

The size of 2 of the images are 164 x 236cm and 195 x 162cm. The third one has a looser composition where the empty space also play a role.

Text by professor Dora Isleifsdottir about the project:

My Nature is a collection and composition of drawings, selected from Kate Madsen‘s artistic research in the last two years, where she explores the multifold surface of a found individual representative of a multitude while being deeply personal and being seen in a deeply personal way:

One fallen tree; streaming light turned into matter. Its final breath given. Deep roots visible. The vertical turned horizontal. Structure laid bare, mirrored and equal, nearly symmetrical though somehow not at all. A tangible lifetime, that little by little it will cede, crumble, and collapse from the inside out. Slowly to merge again with the soil out from which it bowed. At present it remains in all its sublime stature, providing shelter and nourishment for emerging growth. Affording substance and retrieve. Becoming sustainance.

One tree; body, skin, and textures which bear marks of life. The protective bark, like skin, a landscape of rough planes and intermittent grooves that will long outlast the inner core and become the outer dome of a teaming hidden world. Seed, sprout, stem, branch, and branch again, as do thoughts in the mind. The roots and the branches reaching out into the void, trying to grasp, and mark in turn, the invisible and the unseen.

A tree; wood turned into a pencil, multiple sheets of paper; a branchlike hand that maps the surface and transforms its impression into a wide range of tones and expressions; light to dark, contrast in balance, a multitude of spaces journeyed through, depth and flatness textured and wowen into a natural caos laid out for reflection and wonder. Tone fluctuating on a surface at hand, as seen on a surface discovered and explored. Becoming flow that allows for a suspension in time as atmosphere is materialised.

Sustained awareness, attention, and focus make the three dimensional visible at a glance, yet pull the gaze towards and inwards. The wild and free alternations of the pencil invite entry into a fugue conjured with patience and craft. The drawings are an invitation into the imaginary and the dreamlike—to a place where transformation transpires and form is transfigured into textured patterns in an unruly unity. Contemplation can be traced through movement and sense. Focus seen through expansion, enlargement, and revelation. Bursts of sharp concentration felt through unperturbed motion and action. The artist understood to be drawing from experience in order to experience.