Allyson Strafella
(Born 1969 in Brooklyn, NY; Lives and works in Hudson, NY)
I started to verify my visual language in art school. I wasn’t always comfortable with written language. A pencil was never comfortable in my hand. So, I made space for myself by writing with the typewriter to keep up with my thoughts, a fluid stream of consciousness. It was through writing with the typewriter I came to mark making. The typewriter became my tool for drawing.
The grid is my foundation. It brought me into very clear focus when everything had been too expansive.
You learn who you are in the world by living in the world and through experience. How do you go into a studio and start making something without having experiences? What I bring into the studio is from experience outside of it.
I was very, very much into the sound and rhythm of typing when I first started making work. I was counting and was very much aware of the sound of drawing. It was all connected, the sound, the time and the pace. I completely loved it.
–Conversation on May 20, 2020
Listen to our conversation here:
Selected Image from the Collection:
Strafella, Allyson, path: left, 2010, Works on paper, Paper: 16 1/4 x 10 3/4 in.
