Drawing, like any practice and field of study, is made better by a constant look to precedent, learning always from those who came before us. In my own practice, I returned often to some masters of drawing, and rather than copying their work, learning to carve out forms as they did. From John Peto’s wrapped oranges, to Leonardo Davinci’s hands, Dorothea Tanning’s exquisite and mystical bodies, faces, fabrics and hairs, and even Piet Mondrian’s little known flower drawings, each artist teaches me to see the world in new ways.

This is a meditative practice that loosens the hand and the mind, finding new abstractions in the realities of others. While these studies were recommended as a warm up, upon encouragement through much practice, they became drawings onto themselves.