Meditation Series

I make work that is rooted in conceptual systems and is often diaristic in nature. I log and map. In 2006 I started a daily meditation practice that prompted a new series. Every day after I meditate I make a small drawing in a book that maps the light and form I see when my eyes are closed. Then in the studio I draw from these books to make secondary drawings and paintings based on the original source material of a particular meditation on a particular day.

Intricate linear networks trace the shapes I see, a multitude of small dots and lines collectively register shifting thought forms that radiate outward or wind inward, fall or ascend in an indeterminate space. I am working with condensing and transposing an inner space onto paper, reaching to represent glimpses of a liminal world. These works are a record of an ontological investigation, concerning perception and the activity of consciousness. The individual drawings function as discrete pieces but I also see them as collectively registering a visual vocabulary of the mind.

– Karin Schaefer