Debora Alanna: Drawings from 2011-2012 - pen on paper

DRAWING
by Debora Alanna
2011 – 2012
Pen on Paper

Life showed me how it
was possible to
survive in spite of
adversity.
This selection from a
body of work created
in 2011-2012 while
healing from some
affecting emotional
clouts, my testament
to endurance and
insight through an
aspect of my
personality I call
perspicacity.
© Debora Alanna - Drawing
Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013
©Debora Alanna
2

When shadows animate, when
silhouette become thicker than
arms and legs, when dusky
spectres become stauncher
than one’s torso, when street
light glows are eyes to an
otherness that is unavailable in
daylight, I walked in the night, a
shadow of being.
©Debora Alanna
3

Working with a 9 x 11” sketchbook and
fine tipped Bic pens, I made a drawing every couple of days for a year.
This collection is a selection of over 300 drawings made during this time.
Pen on Paper ~2011-2013 4

©Debora Alanna
5
Sensations of an urge
to uplift, support
human concerns is
translated to
personified trees.
My process of working
through adversity
felt like I was all
the trees holding
up the world.

Developing the idea
of
transmutation,
appendages
formed roots.
Growth is the
pervasive
synergy
possible when
the land and
people
connect.
Growth of my
positivity meant
everything I did
had the
potential to
take root – a
process of
rejuvenation.
©Debora Alanna
6

Several
drawings
entailed ideas
for sculpture.
Pen on Paper~2011-2013 7

Working with sculptural ideas
(ideally for future projects)
emerged as a persistent force
throughout the drawings.
3 Towers shows (imagined) split
triangulation – divided forms .
Each triangular form relates to
the other and the smaller
truncated figurative formations
below.
Repeated forms are unique in their
configuration, but similar in
their stance . This drawing is
about a sculptural
maximization and minimization
of relationships.
©Debora Alanna
8

Another sculptural idea
is presented in
Flow.
This drawing is about
consequence s of
attempting to move
through restrictions.
Here, a single self
imposed restriction
impairs course, life
current, curbs the
flow of ideas, of
actions –
constrains living.
©Debora Alanna
9

Space between delineates a space
between objects as a fuzzy
diagonal line separating two
textured spheres. Space
between objects or entities is a
palpable space. Here, the
demarcation is a tether and a
division.
©Debora Alanna
10

A state of equilibrium is a precarious
poise above a weighty mass in
Balance. Stability and a
counteracting influence holds
the upper forms’ balancing
posture. Stillness is required.
This work is an imagined sculpture.
©Debora Alanna
11

Five wavy squared
columns form a
boundary marker.
Integral are central
organic formations
that are outcrops of
the stakes.
Pillars is a sculptural idea
where a boundary is
imagined and the
extenuating
protuberance
challenges the wily
assumption of an
upright , although
questionable
existence the wonky
phalanges articulate.
©Debora Alanna
12

An elongation, an extension of leggy
appendages below the elevated
circular mounds presents the
humour of an awkward outlook.
When drawing out or up, a tautness,
a strain occurs during the act of
a spirited uplifting. During the
tension to ascertain a rising
view point, there is feeling of a
stretch. This strain is best
understood as humorous, even
if the dissention is desirous.
©Debora Alanna
13

During this period, an absence from playing an instrument resulted
in music reflection.
Pen on Paper ~2011-2013 14

Purveyors of sound, i.e.
musicians have the
ability to draw out
music from
instruments. Here,
the musician enlivens
a piano. The pianist
is an extension of the
keys.
Keyboards have been my
longstanding
instrument. I
imagined myself
playing while making
this drawing.
©Debora Alanna
15

‘There are limits to how much sound
a cello can make. That's part of
the framing of acoustical
instruments. Finding what
those limits might be, and then
trying to suggest perhaps even
the illusion of going beyond is
part of that kind of effort.’
~ Yo-Yo Ma
Cello is an investigation of limits
and an semblance of
sentience , the feeling of
being awake to sound
possibilities that may
translate to music.
©Debora Alanna
16

Horn(s) is about the projection of
alternatives and their
instrumentation, co-existence.
The significant, larger central horn
shape is the core of a ribbed
formation, the substantial horn,
the head. Its emphasis
diminishes the receding horns
that become appendages or
accessories to the central
assertion.
©Debora Alanna
17

“And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd-
Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd
All other loveliness:- its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)
Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond- and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant in grief
Disconsolate linger- grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have Red,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten'd and more fair”
~ Edgar Allen Poe. from: Al Aaraaf Part 1.
18

Several works suggested flowers, botany, without any species specifically
reproduced. All flowers were imagined.
Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013 19

"The flower is the
poetry of reproduction.
It is an example of
the eternal
seductiveness of life."
~ Jean Giraudoux ,
TheEnchanted.
Trio is a composition of
three similar but
altered buds that
project, generate a
poetic dissonance
triggering
confluence.
©Debora Alanna
20

Heads heavy, this floral
embodiment depends on the
stems of each to support the
whole.
Existence without the aid of others
is futile.
Munificence is achieved when the
weight of blooming is fortified
by togetherness.
©Debora Alanna
21

Flowering on , nevertheless, an
occupant of gardens within
idiocy’s hedges. singular reverie
poisons the exquisite.
Disconsolate, repenting follies,
here a flower grows guilty of its
splendour.
This is a self portrait.
©Debora Alanna
22

Most plants germinate from seeds.
Some seeds are transported by
wind. This work alludes to
these sowing events, but the
work is not about seed
propagation.
Floaties is optimism, the care free
germs of inspiration as they flit
and flutter before germinating
into thought.
©Debora Alanna
23

Dancers are child-like floral
manifestations, a trio of
innocents gathered on a
planetary orb. They are larger
than their sphere. Elongated
petals point to an zenith, a
serious attempt to reach
beyond the known realm.
One dancer is more comfortable
reaching, does not stretch too
much and is stable. Two want
to reach farther and sway, falter
in their extension.
All remain planted, their stems
grounded Supple and quirky,
Dancers dance aspiration.
©Debora Alanna
24

The beginning of more, of changes
because a beginning has
begun initiates events that lead
to consequence. Inception is
the beginning of corollary.
Tendrils from the upper curved
mass have found their way into
the lower sphere. The
otherwise segregated parts
seem fitted to each other,
connected by fragile
communication. Parts
correspond via the root
augmentation.
Rooting will be the source of new
development.
©Debora Alanna
25

Landscape whimsy and surreality allows
temporary displacement from reality.
Pen on Paper~2011-2013 26

Volcano is a projection
to the future.
Before travelling
and working in
Iceland in 2013
was a thought,
this drawing
emerged as
augur.
This work articulates
the surface of an
aftermath.
©Debora Alanna
27

A fantasy landscape with
a hovering hat, its
wide brim and
shaped crown
decorated with a
bow is a secret
existence in the
midst of a get-
together, an
assignation, where
the others are pond
dwellers, their heads
the ephemeral
clouds.
©Debora Alanna
28

Temporal anomaly, where
segregation is located in the
incongruity of spirit, the
variance of otherness.
Landscape is sequestered and
seized with resounding
delineation by echoes of
enchanting reverberation.
On the other side is a provocation
of strangers, strangeness, the
oddness of difference and how
distinction is normalcy.
©Debora Alanna
29

Microcosmic landscapes exist in
one’s sense of place. There are
senses enough to forge for
minutiae, connectivity
appearing, transpiring as
projections between what is
known and what is unknown.
Emergent is the scope of
investigation where feeling,
sensation interact with the
presence in place, a landscape
of conflict, a collision of
predisposition and interrogation
wielding spears of questioning
from a vortex of consternation
into a boil of possibilities.
©Debora Alanna
30

Childlike fantasy as
landscape is the
subject of Under
the Blanket.
Sometimes,
hiding under the
covers is not a
solution to take
cover from
problems. The
terrible dwell in
the hiding.
Suppression
withholds the
substantial.
©Debora Alanna
31

This work was the title piece for my
2012 exhibition titled Everything
else is winter at xChanges
gallery in Victoria. All the
drawings in this collection were
shown with other works
(paintings) that I will discuss in
another presentation.
This work is about the loneliness of
a wintery interlude, the
diminishment of spirit during a
recuperation period in my life.
Life has all kinds of seasons. This
winter tide allowed a
transformative outlook – thus
the title.
©Debora Alanna
32

“I am not a tree with my root in the soil
Sucking up minerals and motherly
love
So that each March I may gleam
into leaf...” ~
I Am Vertical, 28 March 1961
― Sylvia Plath, The Collected
Poems
“Just at present you only see the tree
by the light of the lamp. I wonder
when you would ever see the
lamp by the light of the tree.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Dancing trees is the release from the
confines of discount, ambulatory
plodding becoming dance and
delight as it leaves restrictions of
probability.
©Debora Alanna
33

Water is a mystical force allowing dramatic alteration, the power to revise, adjust, move.
Water is numinous catalyst . Water is a symbol and expression of the constancy of change.
Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013 34

Scattered throughout
a disturbance in
the midst of what
is washed ashore,
usually debris
after storms
where remains of
wreckage churn
in spiraling
whirls, a volution
of concentricity
becomes bubbles
rising to the
surface.
Flotsam & Jetsam is
the transformation
from wreckage
fragments to hope
ascending.
©Debora Alanna
35

“For in tremendous
extremities human
souls are like
drowning men; well
enough they know
they are in peril; well
enough they know the
causes of that peril;--
nevertheless, the sea
is the sea, and these
drowning men do
drown.”
~ Herman
Melville, Pierre or
the Ambiguities
This work is about what
could of been but
for self
preservation.
©Debora Alanna
36

“Never let go of that fiery sadness
called desire.”
~ Patty Smith
Contained and shielded, the fiery
waters sprout in a fountain of
lazy tendrils out of a small
orifice. Desire is enclosed in a
trapezoid tub, the shield an
uneven constitution.
Enthusiasm is restricted by the
housing device, a shelter of
accommodation. Sprouting the
fiery is about the impairment of
desires’ bluster and intrinsic
sadness that has been
supplanted by melancholy.
©Debora Alanna
37

‘The Road to Oz’, Frank L.
Baum. Ch 7. The
Shaggy Man’s
Transformation:
Baum describes how the
Shaggy Man did not like
a head the Donkey King
gave him: “"My magic
works only one way. I
can DO things, but I
can't UNdo them. You'll
have to find the Truth
Pond, and bathe in its
water, in order to get
back your own head.
This work is a reference to
Baum’s ‘Truth Pond’,
where transformation is
possible.
©Debora Alanna
38

Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013 39
Some works with figurative involvement.

“During that period I
used to marvel at my
own metamorphosis.
At times it seemed
impossible, either that
I had ever lived a
placid, peaceful life ...
(or) that I had become
... inured to scenes of
violence and death.
One or the other could
not be. One was real,
the other was a
dream, but which was
which?
~ The Iron Heel. Ch
XIX.
by Jack London.
This work is about the
experience and
assessment of
change.
©Debora Alanna
40

“The third eye (also known as the
inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric conce
pt referring to a speculative invisible eye
which provides perception beyond
ordinary sight. (...)
In certain dharmic spiritual traditions
such as Hinduism, the third eye refers
to the ajna, or brow, chakra.
The third eye refers to the gate that
leads to inner realms and spaces of
higher consciousness.”
~Richard Cavendish, ed. (1994). Man, Myt
h and Magic .Volume 19. New York, NY: M
arshall Cavendish. p. 2606.
Facing the self encompasses the ‘third
eye’ sensibility. Also, it is a portrait of the
duality, the acceptance of the Jungian
anima/animus within. © Debora Alanna - Drawing
©Debora Alanna
41

The even tone has two variations
differing from each other only in
pitch; the oblique tone has
three variations, known as
"Rising, Sinking, and Entering.”
~ L. Cramner-Byng. A Lute of
Jade. Chinese Verse Form.
Rending space and figure, both flat,
Split is a cessation of inference
in its stylization, a separation of
parts in a mirrored division.
This work shows the diagonal as a
transverse cut where the
oblique allows new
considerations of space and
time.
©Debora Alanna
42

An arrangement of pyramidal shapes
become a system of expanding
structures echoed by like, reversed
images divided from the sun face
by an undulating ribbon. The sun,
ribbon and pyramids with shadowy
polygonal reversals are suspended
without reference to ground.
The quintet of jet shapes under band
becomes a uncommitted necklace
in its proximity to / detached from
the weary sad sun.
Jewel like, the collection of pointed
shapes is the characteristics of
severe perfection, the separation,
a rejection of that rigour. The sun
is the face of consternation with
the knowledge of its incapacitation
with paragon.
©Debora Alanna
43

William Blake, Aldous
Huxley and others
wrote about the ‘doors
of perception’.
Both of the above authors’
writings explain the
need and positive
outcomes that result
when one gets out of
one’s own way.
This work shows a door to
perception open and
the self and its sceptre
descending the
staircase to the
depths of poetic
space, the place
where the unknown
dwells.
©Debora Alanna
44

Afoot, flying into the
unidentified
mystery of
existence, a
winged humanoid
foot is splayed to
grip air in its
airborne pose.
Wings are leaf-
like, growths as
wings alluding to
how humans grow
when soaring
above
expectations.
Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013 45
© Debora Alanna

Onslaught is the
offensive, the
defense against a
cascading deluge of
spherical turbulence.
Provoking and
impertinent spheres
tumble behind the
above and to the rear
of the figure bracing
his shields in futility.
A phantom crowd,
others (otherness) is
entangled in the
surge originating from
an upright book
shape. The spheres
are a discharge of
ideas.
©Debora Alanna
46

Balanced on a curvy walking
stick that extends
beyond the picture
plane, an appendage,
the figure is bent over
with their encumbrance.
The other limb stretches
to steady, too.
Part of the figure’s rear, an
obdurate consignment is
the hard edged box –
containment.
Subjugation is the result of
carrying the burden of
the figure’s self regard.
© Debora Alanna ~ Drawing
Pen on Paper - 2011-2013
©Debora Alanna
47

©Debora Alanna
A waxing and waning during a
fulsome moon talk is
incongruity and wounding in its
loveliness.
Through a replete look, indulgence
contrasts insight with distrust.
Convex and concave phases
simultaneous tests essence
within an oscillating existence.
Poetic thought flows and glows,
despairs as an astute and
cautious creature.
Reflection and redirection bulges
against a spine of longing.
48
©Debora Alanna

Look, quick!
A surreptitious peer, an intent gaze
emerges from a sculptural
form. Peek is the wily
unforthcoming,
reticent view of work looking back at
the maker.
©Debora Alanna
49

It is through Art, and through Art
only, that we can realise our
perfection; through Art, and
through Art only, that we
can shield ourselves from the
sordid perils of actual
existence.
~ Oscar Wilde, 'The Critic as Artist'.
Art is the shield. The shield is the
artist. The shielding may
confound the being, but the all-
seeing shield is mighty.
©Debora Alanna
50

This body of work is
dedicated to those that act with
compassion and kindness.
Your altruist acts mean more
than you can know.
Special thanks to Michael Lewis
for his encouragement
and insight.
Thank you for viewing my work.
Debora Alanna
Pen on Paper ~ 2011-2013 51

Debora Alanna: Drawings from 2011-2012 - pen on paper

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Debora Alanna: Drawings from 2011-2012 - pen on paper