Marley Walter
SCEGGS Darlinghurst
FACING PERSONA
Drawing
Charcoal pencil on Stonehenge paper
My body of work is a physical exploration of something intangible – the hidden components of identity. I used charcoal pencils on watercolour paper to have the full spectrum of dark and light to express soft and dramatic forms with strong contrasting tones as well as subtle areas of gradation. This represents the hidden truths and layers of an individual’s identity with its many shades of grey. I used the side pages of a book to create the same linear qualities evident in the masked portraits, playing with the idea that ‘you can’t read a book by its cover’.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Paul Cadden, Mike Parr, Vernon Ah Kee.
Marker's Commentary
Facing Persona consists of a series of ten finely rendered and highly representational charcoal pencil drawings, exploring the conventions of portraiture. Conceptually the body of work knowingly uses the artist herself as subject matter, following in the rich influences of the history of self-portraits as a glimpse into the psyche of the artists. The portraits examine personal identity, exploring themes of emotion, self-discovery and facial masks, concealing and revealing aspects of the sitter through an assured knowledge of not reading a book by its cover. Furthermore, dramatic use of tonal rendering supports the closely cropped slices of the face on the fore edge of the book, which are highly considered, multi-layered and conceptually coherent.