Drawings by Colleen Maynard

Artist’s Statement

Focusing on fossilized coral and pre-Dinosaur life forms, I make detailed graphite and charcoal portraits of faceless marine specimens. These organisms that often existed for millions of years in system-rich colonies, though outwardly rustic, I approach as revered, even royal subjects. A velvet black background nods at Dutch Realism portraiture or Curios Cabinet. I build the work up into a gridded artifact using drafting pencils and French curves.

Although my processes tend toward the precise introversion of a draftsman or jeweler, I resist being an artist contained in a vacuum; I see the evidence of our species making selfish marks of serious consequence upon the earth. We’re told a new rock made from melted plastic fusing with stone and debris will leave a permanent anthropological mark for future discoverers. My drawings, collages, and writing allow me to process and make sense of the natural world and artifices we’ve constructed as a species.