In 1998 I purchased a carton of 22” x 30” Stonehenge paper. I wanted to approach a singular format similar to a sketchbook, but at a larger scale. Initially, I used pastel to depict vernacular images in unpredictable compositions, combining academic, abstract, and graphic techniques. As I continued to explore contrasting textures and styles, I became interested in altering surfaces by burning, tearing, cutting, and in some cases, shooting the drawings with a 12-gauge shotgun. Displaying them in four-inch deep glass and wood casements acknowledges them as objects and emphasizes the intrusiveness of the perforations created by these destructive processes. Currently I am using the depth of the casement to feature layers of drawings or other substrates behind the foremost drawing surface.
While the drawings are a result of a focused response to a singular framework, they feature an obscure, varied language based on academic and colloquial approaches to image making. My interest in the co-location of profound and absurd concepts of expression drives the compositional and stylistic elements I place in this body of work.
A Night on I-71, John Thrasher, pastel, mixed media on Stonehenge paper, 22″ x 30″ (30″ x 40″ x 4″, framed)
A Night on I-71, references my musings while driving on this north-south corridor through my home state of Ohio. I’m a Kentucky native, and use this road when I visit my friends and relatives there. A grafitti scrawled on an overpass north of Cincinnati has always struck me as a very clever self-referential demarcation, so I included it as text. Often, as I continue northbound, (usually at night) I find myself wary of traveling. As the landscape flows past, I spy the lights of houses in the distance, envious of those nestled in the comfort of their homes. It’s a somewhat presumptuous and naive thought, (the people in those houses may be miserable, especially if they live close to the interstate!) but one that occurs to me nonetheless.
A Night on I-71, John Thrasher, pastel, mixed media on Stonehenge paper, 22″ x 30″ (30″ x 40″ x 4″, framed) (detail)
Drawing is a language that can give immediate expression to thought, or ponderously and attentively explore a visual concept. The practice of drawing provides an immediate and immersive opportunity to perceive, acknowledge and reflect. My drawings are visual structures that balance impulsive and strategic approaches to rendering. Drawing was my first contact with art, and continues to be the way I record direct responses to ideas, and organize information.
A Healthy Balance of Disruption, John Thrasher, pastel, mixed media on Stonehenge paper, 22″ x 30″ (30″ x 40″ x 4″, framed)
When she viewed A Healthy Balance of Disruption in an exhibition, my friend Marrin Eighinger (age, 14 yrs.) asked me to explain the content. Her question caught me off guard because I really didn’t have an explanation. The piece combines extemporaneously collected images from my sketch books, something I do frequently. She helped me realize that the mystery of translation might be what the work is all about…kind of like a puzzle that has numerous possibilities, but no definitive solution. Thanks Marrin!
Saturnalia, John Thrasher, pastel on paper, 22″ x 30″
An early piece in this series, Saturnalia, (circa 2000) combines gestural figurative and cartoon elements.
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