Rootlines — Large Drawing
This large-scale drawing is part of the ongoing Rootlines project, which explores underground networks, organic systems of connection, and the slow intelligence of growth. Working at an expanded scale allows the drawing to move beyond observation and into physical engagement — the body follows the line, and the line records time, pressure, and repetition.
Executed primarily with ballpoint pen, the surface is built through thousands of layered marks. Dense, sculptural forms emerge gradually, shifting between roots, trunks, nerve-like structures, and imagined landscapes. Lighter, hairline extensions stretch outward, suggesting fragile connections and peripheral growth, while darker masses accumulate through sustained, almost meditative labour.
Rather than depicting a specific place, the drawing operates as an internal landscape — a map of movement, memory, and persistence. The composition grows intuitively, without a fixed plan, allowing forms to develop in response to earlier marks. This process mirrors natural systems, where growth follows necessity rather than symmetry.
Within Rootlines, this large drawing functions as a central, immersive work — one that invites slow looking and bodily proximity. It is less an image to be read and more a terrain to be entered, where scale, density, and repetition create a quiet but powerful presence.
