Shawn Hill

62 Berkeley Road, Middletown, CT 06457 

(860) 685-3103 wk   (860) 346-3592 hm   (860) 836-7928 cell

shill@wesleyan.edu

 

 

I am frequently struck by the chasm between the tools I use while working at Wesleyan and those I use when I work on my artwork.  At Wesleyan I work for ITS.  And, as a result, I use two basic tools – a keyboard and a mouse.  The inherent distance between action and product that occurs with these tools is completely dissimilar to intimate connection between action and product that unfolds as I draw.

 

I work in pen in hardbound sketchbooks, drawing 6-8 ideas per page, every other day or so.  From these sketches I cull ones that I want to develop further on a kaolin clay covered hardboard that is marketed under the name: Clayboard.  I use a series of homemade tools (awls and knives) that scratch and bite into the Clayboard’s surface.  I then paint India ink into the resulting scratches.  Once dry, I use sandpaper, water, Q-Tips, rags, and saliva, to bring out and define the image.

 

The works function to record, comment on, and memorialize, events, people, and places.  While I am profoundly concerned with the aesthetic component of the final image, each piece must equally serve as a consequential and personal, mnemonic glyph.