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WORK ON PAPER |
THE HUMAN CONDITIONThomas Jackson uses a single brush and ink to draw directly from life without any preliminary pencil sketching. The thick/thin line and various types of marks result from the direction, feel, and pressure of the brush on paper. There is no subtle layering or erasure. It has been described as “working without a net.” You get what you get the first time and it either works or it doesn’t. This practice forces quick decisions and a “just do it” state of mind. The use of this technique immediately separates his work from that of most people drawing and painting from life. (Continued at bottom of page.)
Jackson’s drawings create a tension between control and spontaneity. He observes light when drawing with white ink on black paper, and shadow when drawing with black ink on white paper. When drawing only shadows, outlines sometimes go missing and figures are incomplete and left to the viewer to fill in the details. The stark contrast of black and white creates images that are easily and quickly “read” from a distance or up close. Viewers of these drawings are reminded of body-related social and political issues: perceptions of ideal beauty and society’s pressure to attain that ideal; the relentless use of the youthful human body in marketing; sexuality, gender identification, body image, relationship dynamics, aging, mental and physical health, etc. Jackson also uses the drawings made from life as a basis for large-scale studio drawings. He crops both gesture drawings, made rapidly with many overlapping lines; as well as more finished figure drawings. The former emphasizes line quality and the division of space; the latter emphasizes shadow shapes created spontaneously while rendering the forms. He also uses entire gesture drawings for compositions with a more open feeling. The addition of color selected as random patterns rather than to clarify the figure further abstracts the drawings and removes them one step further from the original source. In April of 2014 Jackson showed pieces from this series in a two-person show with Priscilla Steele at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Click here to view a review of this show that was published in the Waterloo Courier.
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