| These drawings are a collaboration with chance. I first cover a large sheet of paper with charcoal, then lie down naked on it. Alongside the crisp bodyprints appear random hand- and footprints that define the rest of the drawing. If I can suspend judgment and surrender to what is offered, I draw images I never imagined. It’s true what feminist theory says, that our bodies have their own realm of knowledge. In collaborating with chance my mind relinquishes its role as author. Then I am open to discover what is there, what appears to me, without being compelled to orchestrate it. As a result, these drawings teach me about my life. In fact, they’ve become a primary source in the memoirs I am writing. In beginning small-scale drawings, I’ve changed my method slightly. Handprints (and even fingerprints) replace bodyprints. Still I resist directing the results, instead extracting images from random marks. Rather than representing the world on paper, and making all the rules (if only within the paper’s borders), I attempt to participate in the world that is revealing itself to me through hours of marking and erasing. After a career in foundations and nonprofits, I now put my art first. I have drawn all my life, so it was gratifying to have my work welcomed into the Drawing Center's slide registry in New York in 2004. I am the daughter of Tommie Rybovich, the noted boat designer and builder. I proudly claim an inheritance of self-guided vision and ambition for the work. |