Why so much detail?

The advent of photography in the mid 19th Century freed artists from the shackles of tedious mimicry, of having to reproduce optical verisimilitude with such accuracy. It opened the doors to abstraction and more subjective ways of describing reality. It changed Western, if not World, art history. Unfortunately, that freedom came with a cost; not so much for the viewer as for the artist.

In the process of doing very small work, first with the Plainsong Elegies and later with Space in a Box and Calcium, I was forced to look very carefully at my subjects in order to represent them in the paintings. At first, this was really difficult. I would get exhausted, sometimes with a headache, after just an hour or two of working. Eventually, however, I crossed a threshold, and working with such precision became an invigorating kind of mental exercise. After a few hours of working, I would feel refreshed and vivacious! Some time in 2021, I decided to investigate this. Just doing some superficial research online, I discovered that there are multiple studies of the effects of drawing, particularly that involving acute observation, on the mind. The benefits to mental health include greater fine motor skills, increased hand-eye-mind coordination, strengthened neural pathways between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, increased visual memory, increased neuroplasticity, release of endorphins and lowered cortisol… essentially a great gym workout – but for the mind.

Around that some time, I happened to be reading Leonardo’s notebooks (in translation and proceeding left to right, of course), and I was stunned by how sharp and patient his powers of observation were. The author of nearly all academic Western technique, from perspective to color theory, gained most of his knowledge from just looking. And looking more, looking longer and deeper. When studying objects or phenomena in the natural world, one sees structures and patterns – and learns from them. In my own practice, I’ve noticed that there actually is no bottom, that you can continue looking at something with greater and greater concentration forever and continue discovering new details in whatever it is you’re seeing.