Untitled [two reclining female models] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of two reclining female models in graphite on paper. Look at the lines; they don't try to contain or control, but feel their way around the forms. That's so much of what artmaking is: this dance of seeing and responding. The surface is raw, exposed. The graphite is dry, almost dusty, which gives it a temporal feel, like it could be erased or smudged at any moment. Notice the way he draws the legs of the model on the right, how the lines trail off, suggesting the roundness of the form without fully defining it. It’s like he is coaxing the image into being, rather than imposing it. This reminds me of my own process. I think of Diebenkorn as a kind of bridge between Matisse and someone like Cy Twombly, always searching for that balance between observation and pure, unadulterated mark-making. It leaves the work open, unresolved, alive.