Artist Statement:

Drawing is a process deeply entwined with embodiment and nervous system regulation. While much of my time is spent reading and contemplating philosophy where it is easy to get lost in abstract thought, art provides a necessary grounding into my body and a way to retax the mental mind. I often draw without looking at the page, exploring how my body wants to move in the moment and letting go of any preconceived ideas of an end result. At times, I will feel into my emotional state and see how my hand holding a pen can help me process experiences of anxiety, depression, existential questions, and mental fatigue. This sometimes results in drawing repetitive lines over and over again until my inner state has calmed. Other times, I need more of a concrete focus and will draw while looking at the page, slowly transferring my inner world into concentric circles or dots, needing the repetitive shapes and visual focus to keep me centered. I love exploring contrast and texture, pattern and movement, and the tension between free lines drawn quickly and the slow filling in of spaces. As much as I enjoy the drawing process, I have also been exploring photographing my drawings, zooming in on small sections to the point where you can see how the ink interacts with the texture of the paper, what strange surprises arise in clear or blurred focus, and how an image can change completely when viewed from various angles and distances. Here, the drawings become participatory, taking on a life beyond the single image on a rectangular page and becoming a progressive series where static can merge into energized landscape.

About the Artist:

Tyler Orion is a queer, trans writer and visual artist currently residing in the redwood groves of Northern California after living for many years in Vermont. They’ve had writing published in various journals including Orion, The Offing, Brevity, and Isele. They are a current student in the Masters in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at the California Institute for Integral Studies where they are focusing on process philosophy and humanity’s relationship with our ecological surroundings and the cosmic story of which we are an integral part.