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Artist Statement
Mini Infernal Machine (MIM) like the title suggest is a smaller version of The Infernal Machine (IM) exploring drawing using ink and ink pen tips on watercolour paper.
Drawing took place over a period of three months in bars like the 360 and coffee shops like the Java House in Toronto. They were some of my regular hang outs where I would go to draw, write, and talk with friends.
MIM was a great way to get into creativity. Without any pressure to be anything the drawing process was a stimulus for other ideas some of which were used in other art projects and writing.
Unlike its predecessor MIM incorporates direct visual references from the places where it was drawn. It has recognizable symbolic elements some of which would develop into separate bodies of work, like my illustration series “Bird vs. Worm”. MIM is also the first drawing where another person had direct input into its formation through cause and effect.
On one occasion where a friend introduced me to his new girlfriend, she by accident spilled ink from my container onto one of the panels I was drawing. Assuring her that it is OK, I manipulated the spill a bit and let it dry. Later using silver markers, I drew into the black space. It was the first time in a Dodalism drawing where more than one medium was used.
The accidental element or the chaos factor was something I came to be aware of when I was drawing “The Infernal Machine”, welcoming it. Not looking at it as a mistake or blunder but as part of an organic evolution of the work. It was a direct way to practice non-attachment as I have read about at the time in my Zen Buddhism research.
Mini Infernal Machine is a key link in the formation of Dodalism and my approach to creativity, as it was taking shape literally with each stroke of a pen. It is a non-directional narrative of moments stringed together by chance. It provides a glimpse into the creative process where ideas connect in unpredictable ways forming new ones.
