The first is Justin Quinn. Primarily he works in graphite on paper, although he teaches print making at a university in the mid-west. He is a regular Joe Six-pack and the nicest guy to hang out with. But he has an obsession with his drawing. He likes the way text looks on paper, but understands that if he draws words, the viewer will try to read the words and will overlook the beauty of the text on the page.
His solution is to simply draw every letter as the letter E. He needed a source text to start from. The Bible was too heavy, so he chose to start translating Melville's Moby Dick to the letter E. For example, the book starts "Call me Ishmael." In Justin's version that translates to "EEEE EE EEEEEEE." And it goes on from there.
As a viewer, you quickly realize that you don't need to try to "read" the text. You can just appreciate the form of the text on the page. And as he removes meaning from the text by translating it to the letter E, he re-infuses meaning by interpretation of the passages in his drawings. A passage about Captain Ahab, the dark, twisted, captain looking for the beast of a whale, is drawn dark and twisted. A passage about the whale's tail -- its sinews, muscles, and tendons -- is a layered twisty representation of those textures. A passage about the atols and islands is delicate, depicting the waves washing onto the shores of the ink-blot islands.
Justin has been working on this "translation" project for six years. Not beginning to end, but picking passages that speak to him and guide his hand in drawing his translation to the letter E. He'll be the first to admit that he's a bit obsessive, but he's also the guy next door helping you down that six pack of beer. Here are a few of his drawings that I like. I hope you like them, too.
Next week Lars Theuerkauff. You'll love him!
Cheers!
Updated May 4, 2010.
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