Julie Ann Schafer | Environments and Entities
Images that appear in my artwork are images happened upon in the darkness. My work often is about dusk or nighttime and, even more importantly, the dramatic interaction between light and dark. I am overcome by the beauty of how an object can be illuminated or silhouetted by a subtle light.
I begin the chiaroscuro drawings by smothering all of the light from a white sheet of paper. It is in this blackness that I find the image by reducing with erasers and adding with charcoal. The objects shift and change and move first quickly and then slower and finally come to a place to rest. After the locations are solidified, and only when it is absolutely necessary, do I use white charcoal, and even then it is to add only the brightest of highlights.
The way in which I feel and touch my drawings helps the narratives elicit a mixture of emotions. Certain drawings, such as the ones of animals, bring about protective and warm feelings. This can be seen in Niblet, in which the animal's figure covers nearly the entire surface of the intimate pocket-sized paper. This scale reveals the vulnerability of the creature. Works that question the existence of things have a far more unsettling effect. The relationship between the sharply and softly defined figures of two little girls in Victorian Ghost Story has just such a disquieting and tense atmosphere.
Metaphor is an important aspect in Pumpkin Soul, where Celtic knots are laid over an image of a pumpkin. The pumpkin is a symbol of the human soul in my art, which is inspired by Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree. The addition of the Celtic knots brings up a theme that is present in much of my work, which is the idea of beginnings and endings.