Mintaka, 2013

Over the course of several weeks I prepared the surface for my drawing as Tuhgras were during the Ottoman Empire. There are many steps to achieve a smooth and glowing paper. First you stretch the paper, stain it with inks, apply wheat paste and fish gelatin, coat again with alum and egg white and finally burnish the paper with a small agate stone. Then the drawing begins! I use a steel nib for the fine and delicate lines. In this work I was interested in skies I had seen in New Mexico. I searched for forms to appear as I meditated on the color memory of the skies, slowly they would appear and manifest themselves in my drawing. There is an ebb and flow that occurs while I draw, a focus so intense yet I find a place of quietude like nowhere else.