REASON OF OBJECTS

Most of us would agree that our concept of representational drawing is

“a mere feeble analogue of a reality which overflows it in every direction.  “

Drawing is

“an absolute positing of that which, lying beyond every object, contains in itself the sufficient reason of objects.”

The above quotes are from St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium, as included in The Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton.

Merton describes with great beauty his search for truth.  And as we know, he focuses his search after becoming a Trappist Monk.

Certainly every drawing we do is a search for truth.  Every drawing we do is a search for an understanding of the world.   Even though all drawings are feeble analogues of what we are trying to understand, the act of drawing moves us closer to truth.

Transparency moves us closer to truth because of the rational understanding implicit in the complete resolution of the object.  In Transparent Drawing, we search for the “sufficient reason of objects.”  We search for this “absolute positing” which, when depicted, reveals a truth in the self contained reason of the object.

Transparent Drawing acknowledges the surrounding overflow of reality.  Transparency shifts the understanding of the reality of the object to a broader part of the greater reality.

1. Merton, Thomas.  The Seven Story Mountain.  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego.  1948..