Drawn to Drawings

is the best way to describe how I looked forward to visiting Barry Whistler's Drawn 2. You might say I was drawn to it by invisible forces. But once I got there, they turned visibly delicious. At least as good as I had expected.

Last year's show had a literal wall full of drawings of many forms and formats by almost as many artists. I loved watching that wall of many media lines and shapes and tones almost as much as I loved watching the crowd watch that wall.

I expected another amazingly textured wall this trip. Instead, with probably fewer pieces, and fewer artists, but no less quality, it was single-lined around the front gallery. I slightly missed the melange, but getting up close and personal with each amazing drawing was more than compensation. Getting intimate with drawing is what this show's about and why I was there.

I used to see a lot of drawings by Greg Metz when I was involved in early DARE. I even have a few of them in my collection. But it's been awhile, and I was startled to see he's still near the top of his craft. I wish he were still creating large-scale protest sculpture-oramas, but at least his sense of outrage is still in place. And his spelling is still as loose.

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nother sweet discovery was a large, multi-colored, sewn, daisy-like, floral shape by another superb Dallas sculptor I hadn't seen anything new from for a long time. As always, Linnea Glatt brings an elegant simplicity, as well as a subtle three- dimensionality to her 'drawing.' Lovely.

See Linnea's A Place to Gather and
Human Scale Monuments
and Harrow
in Small Sculpture in Texas

 

I knew I'd be drawn (that pun again) to R Crumb's exquisite drawing here, and I spent several minutes fondling his lines and linear textures with my mind and eyes -- quoting from his drawing, Crosshatching,

For me, drawing is just an excuse to do some Cross-Hatching!

But there were many other forms of drawing in the show, including several that made me stop and think what drawing is all about -- like Adam Raymont's coffee stained and pasted upon fold-out, full of bug eyes and mouths.

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Two superbly simple, little drawings by yet another outstanding Dallas sculptor were Tom Orr's Waterfall Studies, which, in real life and this low resolution photo, appear to be grayscale. They are, in fact, minutely 'etched' black lines on equi-spaced white ground, interrupted with diagonal black lines that look remarkably like falling water dripping and spilling. Like his work at The MAC last summer, these drawings shimmer with optical disruptions caused by our seeing.

 

Irene Roderick - Harley, 2002
pencil on paper - 12.75 x 18 inches
 

Irene Roderick's funky, scribbly Harley, dripping with luscious, liquid graphited shapes and textures rounds out my list of favorites from this delicious little show.

There are many other colors, tones, shapes, forms and formats there, through January 11. I'm sure you'll find them just as tasty.