JOANNE F. FILLETTI

ARTIST STATEMENT

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Drawing is how I see the world, how I make sense of it, how I articulate my profound discomfort in it and how I make my peace with this discomfort and thus retain a mite of sovereignty in it.

Drawing and seeing are inextricably linked. It engages me with my environment. It is difficult as there is nothing to hide behind - the maker is laid bare. It keeps me vulnerable and open. It is exhilarating to have such direct contact to mark making. It is as primal and pleasurable for me as playing in sand or soil.

I am perpetually captivated by representational imagery as a vehicle to discuss elements of the human condition that confounds, horrifies and moves me. The human figure is especially potent; it is a subject that can be mined for the political, the social and the spiritual components of a condition that is as a trough brimming to full with despair and profound loneliness. As I gain a better understanding of subjects that I am compelled to draw and find so deeply moving, I consequently challenge my perception of what is real and how things actually work and interact. For a drawing to ever be successful, I must completely surrender to it, without judgement, merely to record what I see.