Beverly Ress

My work is an ongoing visual investigation of mortality. I draw carefully observed representations of things that have wandered off this mortal coil – birds, plants, bugs, and animals. Each is equal to the others in its mortality. I reinforce that equivalency by drawing them all in the same way: colored pencil on 22″x30″ paper.

I believe in the power of representational drawing. To draw is to see. Sometimes the work is complete when the drawing is finished.

At other times the drawing becomes a point of departure. I have a desire to pull the pieces of the world together, to make whole sense of our fractured reality. Paradoxically, that urge has compelled me, at times, to take my drawings apart. “Mapping” began as the drawing of a root. It was extremely complex, and time consuming to create. After it was completed, I felt the necessity to literally cut it apart. In destroying the wholeness of the drawing, I made 2 new works. Each one became an object made of pieces of drawing. One explores DNA mapping, the other explores the dimensional qualities of the root in “Rooted”.

I’m currently focused on bringing together some of the throretical shapes of the universe – torus, klein bottle, mobius strip – with drawings of mortality.