Collection: Aaron Jackson Bowman

as a device that governs, that organizes, that organically and artificially shapes nearly all reaches of the human experience―from municipal borders to geographical phenomenon to planetary orbits, from civil infrastructure to electricity and the internet, from stock exchanges to mathematics, from music and dance to penmanship and needlework, from parades to rockets, from architecture to tree roots, from the construction of our bodies to the chronology of our lives and the four dimensions we are confined to meander within―the line is a self-serving, beautiful economy forever offering the mind a reference point. a this or that. a taxonomy. a box. a pathway.

so inherent in all things perceptible and understandable, the line is everywhere, always; and it prevails as one of the purest forms of mark-making.

in the beginning, mankind created the line.
and the line is a malleable god.

from the lascaux cave paintings to the works of matisse and mondrian 17,000+ years later and so much art before, between, and after, human creativity has relied on the line as a foundational primary.

the work herein has made no departure from that principle.

herein, the paintings are drawings.
lines.
dumb, primordial, plastic gods.
herein, the line has been adopted, exploited and is the most conspicuous part of the work. 

linework equals artwork. linework equals framework.
the line is a cartographer.
scribbles beget movement. and vice versa.
the line is an exhibitionist.

relying upon the circumscriptions and gestural wanderings of a laissez-faire but conscious act of drawing, the work herein in a celebration of continuance.
it’s a pairing of misbehavior and control.
it’s an enactment of us.

the line is an autocrat. the line is anarchy. the line is a shapeshifter.
the line is a sassy, sly, malleable god.