Pre-Broken Mind Abstraction

pencil on paper

This drawing is from 2015, and I’m writing about it in 2026, so my memory of making it isn’t clear. It’s a pencil drawing on paper. I later used it as a starting point for a piece I began nearly a decade later titled Broken Mind.

With these abstract drawings, my approach is to establish a few simple “laws” and then draw without much analysis, focusing mainly on how the elements relate to each other.

The laws here are straightforward. There is a space, and forms can move forward or recede within it. At the same time, I’m intentionally avoiding anything that reads as representational. This is an exercise in getting things/the elements to work with each other.

I still like this one.