Dorothea Osborn “Encompass”, graphite on mylar, framed size 18”H x 15”W, 2015 $250.00

 Drawing is the ability to put aside the rigors of everyday living and meditate on issues important to me. These issues range from ecofeminism, Anthropocene, and relationships.These particular drawings are based on the natural world. Having high esteem for the natural world, I am captivated by the abilities of the smallest organisms’ ability to survive. I find diatoms and insects particularly fascinating. The two drawings here are based on the natural world and images that I have seen. The drawing, Sublime Capture, can be viewed as spider web or a unfathomable cosmos in the far reaches of space. The drawing Encompass was inspired by Haeckel’s illustrations of diatoms and the actual diatoms that I have actually seen under an electron microscope when I visited the NYS scientist at his Albany, NY office. In these drawings, the intent was to focus on the negative space to produce the positive. My fascination with this process is how organisms seemingly produce something out of nothing. It is in this time of Anthropocene that I want and hope people will come to appreciate the natural things we deem as dirty, useless, and disgusting.. as useful, beautiful, and integral to our own human existence.