EXACT OBSERVATIONS

Ellsworth Kelly on his plant drawings:

“They are exact observations…Nothing is changed or added: no shading, no surface marking. They are not an approximation of the thing seen nor are they a personal expression or an abstraction.” They are renderings of a way of seeing, the finely distilled essence of an observed fact.” p.29

We have looked at and used Kelly’s plant drawings as form generators. One page in this regard is ELLSWORTH KELLY PLANT DRAWINGS.

I really like their use of the word exact observations.  I might want to transform that to exact objects.  And then go to resolved observations.  Extend that to visual fact?

As Garrels tells us, Kellly’s plant drawings are a way of seeing.  And this way of seeing does not involve any sort of representation.  These pages have used, dare I say coined, the term visual facts.  Kelly considers their drawing a fact.

This concept of seeing.  This way of seeing.  This is nearly identical to the Transparent Drawing way of seeing.  All we are really trying to do is make drawings with the same intent that Ellsworth Kelly made their plant drawings.

Accurate.  Resolved.  Non Representational.  Fact.

1. Garrels, Gary.  Drawing from the Modern 1945-1975.  The Museum of Modern Art:  New York.  2005.