DRAWINGS (IN THE THICKET)

Fear is a fascinating experience. It is so difficult to describe or explain what it is. All we initially understand about fear when we feel it is that we are indeed experiencing it. There is a great video by Michael Stevens that dives deep into the science of why things are creepy and scary. In some way, this information was a huge inspiration for this short series of drawings. We wanted to provoke “unsettledness” by utilizing the absence of light.

Fear in the context of creepy is usually felt when we are unsure of what we are seeing, or our eyes are filling in the blanks with ominous details. The drawing process for In The Thicket was to render the artwork using as little mark-making detail as possible, meaning that the viewer’s eyes will have to finish the drawing. We used negative space to create vast details that change from viewer to viewer. Our eyes are amazing organs, able to contextualize almost anything they perceive. To play on this visual response is ultimately a psychological experiment.

The “Thicket” is in reference to where one may witness such sights as these. Most of the figures are wading through some type of brush, bramble, or forest in the dark. There have been many inspirations that have fueled these drawings and the world in which they live: Patrick McHale’s “Over The Garden Wall, ” M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” and Robert Eggers’s “The Witch” just to name a few. All of these cinematic works use the woods and their darkness to encourage a fear response, and that is a timeless, tasteful way to do it.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter the Thicket.