The Body as Phenomenon

This project began during a series of life drawing sessions conceived and hosted by model Andrea Morani in response to Kenneth Clark's The Nude. While drawing Andrea's spectacular interpretations of Renaissance poses exploring themes of Apollo, Energy, Pathos and Ecstasy, I found myself wondering whether the human figure could perform the same psychological work as sacred architecture.

Renaissance churches were designed to guide perception through spaces of transcendence. These drawings ask whether charcoal and the human form might perform the same psychological work.

Working through accumulation and erasure, I am less interested in describing anatomy than in constructing presence. The figure becomes a structure of weight, rhythm and stillness. Something to inhabit rather than simply observe.

I find myself moving between architecture, spirit, phenomenology and archaeology, not yet certain where the language to describe what I'm thinking settles, only that each offers a different way of approaching the same questions.

It's unfolding.