About Ten Houses, a series of graphite drawings in this portfolio.  Ten Houses is a series of drawings created during 2021-2022.  The drawings are intended to be viewed alongside the sculptures in Information Systems, 2020 portfolio and the 72 x 192 in painting, Quadriptych (Pythia’s Sphere of Vision), 2021. They are one work to be viewed as a single installation. Ten Houses incorporates landscape, architectural and body references. This work describes a dream state and has notations of obliterated cyphers, sound patterns, psychedelia, landscape, and body reference throughout.

 The large drawings are consistently 107 in. wide with heights ranging from 97 to 113 in. in height with rough and irregular edges intended to feel as torn pages from a small sketchbook. This is a way to state a very intimate form of communication is a grand scale. Drawing is a visual language and a primary form of communication when no other form seems to suit.  Memory plays a dynamic role in this massive project. The place we store memory, one for real occurrence in memory and another for reoccurring dreams in memory.  I want to explore how we separate the two in our mind and why we revisit places we create.  A lifetime of notations and sketches from reoccurring dreams in which the memory visits dwellings that never seen in life, yet the structure details, occupants and occurrences are extremely vibrant and colorful.  Graphite is the choice medium for this portion of my work as it feels to be the most immediate, mist urgent form of communication and fluidity for me. The stark contrast of black and white is a reminder that most people dream only in black and white, if they dream at all.  This drawing is not mounted or framed. The edges are irregular to reflect the spontaneous nature of the work and subject. Each drawing in this series of work has notes, writing and poetry that accompany the work. I have archived months of video and recorded spoken word that accompany the drawings, sculptures, and painting.

©2012 -2022 April “Zanne” Suzanne Johnson/ Artist Right’s Society NYC