Description
By Annie Murphy-Robinson, USA.
The labor-intensive technique that Annie Murphy-Robinson uses to build up her gradations and textures started to emerge about 15 years ago. It involves sanding charcoal into the paper as she draws. Using sandpaper to grind in and remove small amounts of material, she can create finer details and textures that are otherwise hard to get.
She covers the paper’s surface with compressed charcoal and sands it down to a light gray color several times. By doing this, she effectively changes the rough nature of the paper and makes it uniformly smooth before drawing on it. Annie works from photographic references that she takes herself. She usually starts at the eyes because they are the window to the soul. At her work’s emotional and spiritual level, her main focus is to convey truth and honesty. For Annie, the only absolute truth is of herself and her children. This truth is filtered through a lens of her own experience, often being bittersweet and questioning.
Annie explains that she doesn’t run from her past: “my art helps me recognize the importance of it and makes it worthwhile. Through drawing, I take power out of the trauma.”