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Absence Present
Paperback
American Art - GeneralConceptual ArtGeneral Poetry
Publisher Price: $25.00
Publisher: Res
Published: Sep 4 2026
Pages: 214
Weight: 0.75
Height: 0.58 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
This collection explores expression through medium, method, presence and absence, scale, and meaning.
Each drawing was created using a digital tablet, drawing application, and hand gestures. The quick, fluid movement of the thumb and forefinger across the touch screen created interacting linear elements using vector forms, alternating between additive and subtractive linework, the lineweight becoming slighter with every pass. This method allowed the hand to produce natural, flowing form and void while leveraging the advantage of the digital medium, creating true absence, rather than that suggested in traditional media, by painting over or erasing, both retaining some aspect of what was placed on the surface previously, whether with layers or remnants and the palimpsest. In this medium, absence is true. It is surprising more artists haven't explored this in the digital.
The many iterations on the digital canvas with varying linetype and lineweight allow depth and scale to articulate the form, while the act of subtracting creates positive form, a reversal of figure and ground and what is absent. The constraint of black and white clarifies the intention, and there is no issue reversing the values, black to white and white to black, figure becoming ground, ground becoming figure. The images in this collection are black on white in order to limit the use of ink and to avoid issues with some digital readers, especially e-ink devices. In addition, the graphic work can rely on complementary colors, such as purple with yellow and orange with blue, to provide a similar effect.
As mentioned, the work explores scale not only with lineweight but also with the digital tools which are vector based. Vector graphics can be reproduced at any scale, such as at the size of a postage stamp or the size of a billboard, without the loss of clarity and definition. This creates another opportunity to explore the meaning of scale, when the work of the hand, at the size of the hand, can become monumental, colossal, or minuscule.
These works grew out of art and architectural education. In both fields, the tool and medium are encouraged to be expressive, providing unique form through characteristics in the working parts as well as specific, deliberate movement. In addition, graphic design and architecture programs explore figure ground to describe solid versus void and positive and negative space. In these fields, the designer is really designing the space, the negative, not just the material surfaces and elements.
Although the work can be presented at different scales, the book is the medium of choice for this collection. It is compact, approachable, and not precious. In this way, the work invites interpretation without worry of verity and stature. Everything is a mirror, and the understanding of the elements in this collection relates to the viewer's own experience and belief. Paired with the graphic work, each facing page contains three phrases which could describe the work, and readers are invited to compare and contrast the written descriptions with their own conceptions.
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