I was introduced to the medium of charcoal in 1985 by my friend and mentor, Ling Chung.  I remember her referring to charcoal drawings as "painting" and talking about the beautiful "color" therein.  At first, I thought this was an eyesight problem or some Zen description, but I soon fell in love with the medium and understood what she was talking about. 

Drawing with charcoal really is like painting.  Vine charcoal covers large areas quickly and easily with a warm gray that can be manipulated with a rag, like paint, and drawn back into with an eraser, white on black.  Compressed charcoal provides a cold graphic black counterpoint to the warmth of the vine charcoal.  Working with these two types of charcoal one can accomplish a broad range of value, texture and tone which seems almost "colorful."

Most of these drawings are over human scale and drawn from the live model.  The paper is pinned to the wall and "attacked" with broad gestures using the whole arc of the arm and even the whole body on larger works.  It is important that this initial energy show through, even to  the culmination of the work. 

My first concern is with structure.  Searching for a proper structure eventually conforms the pose to the space of the paper and establishes the composition.  The structure, pose and composition are arrived at concurrently and are, therefore, integrated.

This tension between the figure and the paper's containing edge is always in mind.  This relationship between the figure and its actual ground is the basis for the figure's scale and presence, like a caryatid or figure within a niche.  Their stories are within their bodies, their faces, hands and feet - not their environments.

By allowing the process of development (the initial searches for a structure, adjustments in the pose, erasures, distortions and perspective shifts) to show, I hope to attain an element of passing time and spirituality.