Renee DeCarlo

I always begin with drawing, which really begins as mark-making, the essence of drawing. My point of departure, is usually somewhere in a state of chaos - where I leave the environment or a situation in control of the direction to which the marks are made. It is then up to me to find or create a sense of order; to clean up the marks and form and build a narrative with lines and layers of color. I work on paper and wood simultaneously, and often integrate them with each other. It could be my eternal longing for and foundation in clay, but my instinctive nature is to seek out the boundaries of a material’s strength and fragility - and to define its breaking point. Both paper and wood seem to naturally coalesce with my need to push and pull. I use painting, printmaking, sewing, collaging, incising, tearing and perforating to draw, and choose my surfaces and materials accordingly. Aesthetically, my work is imbued with elements that reflect on the world around me – where struggles for balance and variation exist in the spaces between order and disorder. I’m constantly on the prowl for that moment of discovery and opportunity to evolve. How a drawing begins and ends, spans the spectrum of, and defines the spaces between chaos and control.

 

For more information about the artist, please visit his website.