Author: Christopher Conway

A few months ago I submitted two sketchbooks to the Brooklyn Art Library “Sketchbook Project.” At some point they will be digitized and available for viewing on their website. These two pages are from the sketchbook titled “Just Another Covid Sketchbook.” These two pages seek to express the difficulty of representing the emotions provoked by Covid and the American politics around it. The sketchbook is angry and bitter, mostly, and these pages capture the challenge of articulating something about our situation. I made this with watercolor pencil and water soluble graphite and then used a spray bottle with water to activate it all.

The rest of my posted pictures here.

I keep an illustrated journal but recently I have been experimenting with 18″ x 36″ or 48″ banners that are folded horizontally and vertically and then folded into page-like squares. Illustrations in these diary “banners” can then cut across multiple pages/diary entries. The detail above features a figure from Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” The banner recreates elements from that aquatint, in water soluble graphite and watercolor pencil. The images below are other parts of the banner, with my handwritten text blocked out.

The rest of my posted pictures here.

Two page spread from my journal, depicting the titular character of the Palme d’Or-winning Mexican film María Candelaria, directed by Emilio Fernández.

The Mummy (1932) [Water soluble graphite.]

Dracula [Watercolor]

Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (1907-1954) 4×6 postcard, ink and watercolor

Julio Cortázar, Argentinian novelist (1914-1984) 4 x6 postcard, ballpoint

Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (1904-1973) 4 x 6 postcard, ink and watercolor

 

 

Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) [14 x 17, charcoal]

I drew and painted these as offerings to leave behind at the graves of Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, and César Vallejo, all of which are located in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. I don’t know what happened to these 4 x 6 cards. It rained for a few days after I left them there. I assume they were wrecked and eventually trashed by some groundskeeper.