SAM STILL

Artist Statement

I make both small and large format burnished black ink drawings on paper. Some with emphatically flat silhouettes of organic shapes as well as rectangles that are divided and or connected, others with exposed white shapes, that when engaged over a prolonged period, will oscillate between object and opening. Obsessively calculated edges define my practice.

One of my pleasures is the rigor involved in creating these drawings, the burnishing with an agate stone, the layers of ink built up over time through a repetitive process, both akin to meditation, losing myself, being transported to an ambiguous world of thought, memory and instinct. The images both contain and obscure my emotions, a document of my inner experience and the life cycle of the drawing itself. There is also the pleasure of creating work facilitated by a specifically designed system of self-imposed limitations and controls.