DRAWINGS

by Stephen Williamson


I don't know quite when I started making these small 8 1/2" x 11" drawings with markers. I think I began in 1979, when I was working as an audio-visual writer-director, adapting films into an automated filmstrip format. While the work was creative, there was such a long gap between starting a project and seeing the final production that weeks, often months, passed.

I'd started drawing again in film school for much the same reason, but in '79 I had much less time. I needed something portable and quickly accessible, so I started working with this small format and with markers instead of paints. Often I just grabbed anything at hand.

I now have several hundred of these small drawings, often of friendly looking beings and imaginary landscapes, but I've also done long sequences of abstracts following the permutations of patterns of "mistakes" from other drawings. I seldom have begun these drawings with any intention. I'll suddenly feel the need to draw, and just begin with no idea what will happen.

I've never shown these to anyone, and began to look through them when we needed illustrations for the Motley Focus. I'd like thank my colleague, Bill Timberman, for encouraging me to scan and put them together as a "show," and for the time and effort he put in selecting them and putting them up.

John Lloyd, whose visionary landscapes also appear here, kindly took the time from his busy schedule to teach me to scan these small drawings. It's a pleasure to have these drawings appear beside his luminous oils.


Flying Sun Bug (45K)

The Game (53K)

Night Flight (77K)

Reposed (42K)

Tree of Life (63K)


Steve is also a sculptor and a maker of spirit tools of various kinds. For a look at some of his other work, click here:

Steve's Rattles


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