Mark Manders

I heard Mark Manders mentioned in class in second year some time. I checked him out a little bit on the internet but I found his book, Several Drawings on top of Each Other, in the library and got it out. It has one of the best titles I've ever heard, first things first.

I think it's sort of a collection from an exhibition, but I'm not sure. The first picture in the book is a photograph of a model dog lying with a line of piled up drawings.
I scanned a few drawings that I liked.

It seems like he can actually draw really well. Maybe anyway. It could be a fluke but there seem to be hints that he has some real technical ability. The drawings seem really playful and everything but there's something upsetting about them too. Not just the way figures are distorted and things, but I find the sparseness and the various faces really melancholy.
I tend to like the images that I can create some sense for. Coming to the book and having no understand of what it's even about is sort of frustrating.
For example, alot of the drawings are really similar and there are recurring little images and things. So I get the feeling there is some over arching idea, some thing tying all the images together, but I don't know anything about it.

Instead I find I'm trying to create little narratives and meanings for each image.

So I don't know! I like the minimalist aspect and the way it all seems quite free flowing. I would like to absorb some of this into my work.

I think about trying to apply some of that to my current project, those pieces for Strays. But I feel like that project is kind of stuck on a certain track now. I also realise, suddenly, I'm in my third year and won't have alot of time for messing around on fun briefs and that makes me deeply unhappy.