Jacob Rowan – Jackson, Mississippi

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Chorus, ink on watercolor board, 23.5”x16.5” 2015

Briefly describe the work you do. 

I make drawings in response to what I read. They are not illustrations of events or characters, but rather an externalization of the mental imagery invoked by the experience of literature. I want to pick up where words leave off by creating images to accompany the literature I love. By combing both art and words, I hope that I can enrich the experience of both.  

It’s easiest to say that my main medium is ink, but really that has come to mean all kinds of liquid materials including coffee, tea, traditional sumi, and watercolor. Conceptually, I appreciate the connection of ink and graphite to the writing process and literature. Because my work is based on ideas and structure, I also appreciate the straightforward ease of applying ink and graphite to untreated surfaces. 

Tell us about…

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Making Ink

I’ve tried several different methods to create large fields of flat black in my drawings over the last several years. I was using sumi ink for a while since it created a more even tone than india ink. However, I recently discovered the oriental method of grinding an ink stick made from pine soot against slate to create fresh ink without the level of glue or binder found in bottled sumi. It’s definitely a more time intensive process, but the meditative nature of grinding the ink gives me more time to think about my drawings.