songs from the stone quarry 

 Lieder aus dem Steinbruch

I think you cannot really start automatic drawing on purpose, just sit down with the intention to draw something unintentionally. No. I think it will find you, sometimes in rather unlikely situations. Like the one when I met with good friends a few weeks ago, engaged in vivid conversations, paper and pen in front of me, feeling a strong urge to draw. My mind was distracted enough to let the "other" system (hand-eye-subconcious) roam freely across the paper. A few days later, now without the need for distraction, I held a pack of strictly nonsensical drawings in my hand, still not quite sure, about what exactly I was doing. A title for this whole endeavour popped up in my head – Songs from the Stone Quarry (Lieder aus dem Steinbruch). Instantly I thought about another project I had started earlier in 2023 – The Garden of Thought – and it all made sense to me. 

I perceive the stone quarry as a grinder that mills down any input brought into my concious mind, until they become those tiny particles, which make up the floating grey sand of my subconscious. I envision a sensor peering down on this sandscape, picking up anything from background noise to random images, very much like the needle of a record player, the hand and pen on the other end acting as an output device.

The drawings range from purely abstract to more or less figurative, some may even appear to be generated by an algorithm, very few are with colour. New ones are regularely added at the bottom.

The drawings shown below are presented in order of date of origin. Ink on paper, coloured pencil, 29,7 x 21 cm, first drawing 12/2023