Palimpsests
Erasure- a language in it’s own right, inextricable to the creative process
In this drawings I explore the layered nature of mark-making—where drawing becomes both an act of creation and erasure. Each piece is built from accumulated gestures, some partially erased, others reasserted. These overlapping layers form a palimpsest: a visual record of change, revision, and transformation.Erasure, in this context, is not simply a removal. It is a constructive gesture—a way of reshaping meaning, of opening space for something new to emerge. The process itself generates a unique visual language, one shaped by both presence and absence, memory and forgetting.
A reality that has been reassessed, reinvented, just like a chalkboard that allows us to see partially erased marks.
By superimposing new marks onto old ones, I’m not covering over the past, but reengaging with it—reassessing, reinventing. Like a chalkboard that still carries the ghostly traces of what was once written, these surfaces retain the imprint of prior moments. In this way, the work becomes a record of simultaneous stories—sometimes contradictory, but always intertwined.
Often, the layers beneath the final image reveal more than the image itself. They tell a fuller story—one of process, struggle, revision. Like the multiple drafts of a manuscript, these remnants reflect a negotiation between what we choose to keep and what we’re willing to let go of.
These visual records embrace contradiction and tension. They reflect a process of sublation—a way of reconciling opposites through transformation. Here, the old is not dismissed by the new. Instead, obsolescence and relevance find ways to coexist. Through this dialogue, a new, layered reality emerges—one where 'good' and 'bad,' failure and resolution, can live side by side. I work primarily with charcoal, pencil, felt tips that fade over time, and a rubber. Each of these tools plays a vital role in the dialogue between permanence and impermanence. The softness of charcoal, the precision of pencil, and the transient nature of felt tips create a tension between durability and disappearance. The rubber is not just a tool for correction, but for rewriting—an active participant in the creation of layered meaning. These materials reinforce the idea that nothing is ever entirely lost; instead, everything leaves a trace.