Chloe Cheese

Drawing is an intimate form of self-expression. We can see clearly the hand of the artist in each line and almost feel the pressure or lightness of touch employed.

Making a drawing one discovers, by looking with unusual intensity, many things about one's subject. I can see discovery in the drawing process when I look at the work of Mario Minichiello and many of his students; an engagement that is missing from the work of those too preoccupied with surface or using repetitive technique without invention.

Drawing is the handwriting of the artist and is as individual.

As a student I would often find the drawings of artists such as Rodin, Picasso, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, would be a pathway to understanding the more complex and multi-layered paintings or sculpture. Observation in the drawings of these artists is often breath-taking and to see the thought processes in the alterations and emphasis teaches one a great deal as one draws oneself.

To have hands seems to naturally lead to drawing, to record seen images of internal states or imaginary scenes or to make notes of ideas for later use. For the skilled and gifted artist drawing is a very direct and unique method of communication. I think there are also elements of magic in making drawings — a power that artists and writers have in translating the world around them and for this to be understood as they intend by others in a different place and/or time.

Chloe Cheese
Artist and Illustrator
Lives and works in London

October 2000