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Pencil on paper 10 x 15 in 25.4 x 38.1 cm Collection of the artist |
Surls refers to his drawings as psychological blueprints to a particular state of mind: "Making drawings is like a performance that I do alone, me trying to picture something that doesn’t exist...I don’t have rules about keeping the pencil on the paper, but I don’t go back and erase. That’s because I don’t like the smudge marks. I don’t make mistakes that would require erasing. In life of course I make mistakes. But when I am drawing, I can’t say to myself ‘oh, I messed up.’ I just can’t do that. I have to step into a moment of total belief. What comes out comes out—that’s the way it was meant to be. You have to be in a state of singular belief. I can’t go in with doubts, or ‘oh I hope I can do this’."
-Terrie Sultan, Director of Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston.
