Even a pen wants to be something.

These remind me of the hours spent doodling on the back of your folders in grade school, hell, even in college! But 2004 RISD graduate Justine Ashbee has seen the power of the pen, a Sharpie, to be exact, and it is quite mighty!

In her artist statement she says:
The amorphous entities and reaching tentacles emerge and take form much like the navigation of a surfer within a wave.

These drawings are executed purely by hand, using Sharpie pens. I begin with a curve, from which lines and forms begin to emerge, evolve, morph, and grow organically, in an intuitive flow, while maintaining delicate, elegant precision. The methodology is rhythmic, spontaneous, and direct, reducing interference with mark-making. Much like zen calligraphy, they are improvisational, and intuitively composed, where the physicality and the mark making become one.

I’m utilizing stark, amorphous lines to trace the movement and human experience of the non-linear and imaginational realms. Through this intuitive visual language, a negotiation of the visceral and everyday human experiences of beauty and pleasure, and feeling are given voice.