The effect of darker tonal shapes on a light background creates an emotional distance from the nature of the darker shape. It also preserves said shape into a flattened frame, perhaps like an X-Ray. I enjoyed exploring shapes in this format, with a focus on objects devoid of evident value. Here, a somewhat bulbous, mostly amorphous shape inspires the handle of a modern bottle, or what I conceived of as a gourd.

What simmers to the surface, is that the shape that humans decide to give to objects is quite arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. After a couple of centuries or the rise and fall of a civilization… those shapes become impregnable symbols, and their meaning gets lost, locked in with the secrets of civilizations past and universal ancestry.

Original art piece from my Totems series. Shown in my first art exhibition in Chicago (April 1st, 2022).

Hand drawn, sepia ink on deckled paper 9”x12”. Signed and dated.

Framed in white, 14” x 18”.