Chris Mahan
The Lion and The Crab
August 2024
27x35 cm / 11x14″
Museum-Quality Matte Paper Poster
When I start a doodle I never try to see the future nor try to predict the overall shape or theme. I focus on each element as I draw them—mindfully and meticulously, knowing the whole will appear in time. I attempt to maintain an overall uniformity with each little shape, for it pleases me to repeat the motion of drawing. Yet, in the end, no two pieces are alike, just as no two pebbles in a riverbed are exactly the same, yet appear as a uniform whole, and the eye imagines the shape of the river, and sees not what is drawn, but what the mind expects to see.
This piece is purposedly uneven, asymmetrical, and reflects my unease at trying to fit in this world. I am never quite certain whether I will be loved or hated, accepted or exiled. The shapes that grew organically showed more of my inner landscape than I expected, and for some time I hesitated to show it to others. Only after a few of my friends demanded I send them copies did I relent.
I originally drew this on 11x14'' Strathmore Bristol 300 with Sakura Micron pens, over a period of ten days, alternating between drawing the shapes with a 005 pen, and filling them with 01, 02, 03, 05, and 08 pens. I drew this entirely on my dining room table.
I hope you find something of me in the dark surface, and something of yourself also.