I began this series of oil pastels because someone had criticized my work as showing little use and by implication, understanding of color. Sculpture often limits the use of color so as not to overwhelm the form. I have never been so comfortable with a brush in my hand as anyone who has ever seen me do house painting can attest, but drawing is more tactile. You can grasp the color in your hand and push it onto the paper and in some cases scrape it off…
Palimpsest is, “a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.” In the visual arts, it essentially means erasing what was there before. In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg famously asked for a drawing from de Kooning and erased it. https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/98.298
In my drawing, I scraped away the figure’s forehead to transgress into his thoughts or at least what I imaged them to be that day.