Comfort Me, Said He
My interest in creating large-scale drawings of sheep began when I was teaching a comparative anatomy course. I took students on location to the sheep barn on the campus of the University of Minnesota. As I began to visit this location more frequently, my interest in the metaphorical and mythical potential of the relationship between the domestic flock and their keepers grew, and I’ve raised these questions in this suite of drawings.
I became fascinated by what happens formally and the sensation that occurs within a heightened paradoxical space of description (fact) and invention (fiction). Are these sheep coming or going? What is about to happen; what has happened? Where and when did this or will this take place? The perceived illusion of space and time in these drawings must remain negotiable and psychologically ambiguous. Much like the characteristics of a myth, the symbolic forms of the sheep and their keeper often express inner conflict and discord. In this way the images prompt questions about social and political conditions, and about philosophies of cultural values. There is no defined narrative for the viewer, but the images suggest, ever so softly, many possible outcomes.