One of the great joys of being able to write
the introduction to your own web site is that most people will never bother
reading what I say, really need to, or care. I can just babble endlessly for it
does not matter. You are here to view drawings, look at something different
and perhaps generate some feelings. I hope you enjoy viewing this work as
much as I have enjoyed creating the designs, my world and myself. I sincerely
hope you are entertained.
At dinner one night 1998 in Sighisoara,
Romania, having spent the day with an environmentalists and several American
missionaries viewing Copsia Mica, one of the worst ecological nightmares of
recent times, I was asked about my drawings. My sketchbook was passed around the
table and the woman next to me asked what I called these drawings. In typical
fashion of brain moving too fast for mouth I blurted out the word "Abscrack."
Everyone laughed as it was clear that this was a perfect description of these
drawings that that often defy description.
During these last three years I have traveled
over 30 countries in Western and Eastern Europe studying business, art,
architecture and urban planning. I read thousands of pages in books that I had
put off reading for 25 years (I now understand why). I took live model drawing
classes in Quimper, France (while I froze in a cheap hotel). I skied for two
weeks in the Alps (getting a sunburn above the cloud line). I walked (killing my
feet) the great cities of Europe and saw more monuments, museums, and churches
than most people care to see in a lifetime. I was on the last boat from Albania
before the airlift (I felt safer in Albania than in Columbus, Ohio). I fell in
love with Transylvania (A place without Dracula that is most like Germany in
1935). In St. Petersburg I lived in one of the giant nameless blocks that was
the vision of a new order by the modern architects. Currently, I am living in
Piran, Slovenia which is one of the beautiful great towns built by Venice in the
fourteenith century.
My goal in drawing is to both chronicle the
reality I see and to unleash the reality of the illusion within my brain. This
site is two parts: the Abscrack drawings and the realistic drawings from my
travels.
Please enjoy and explore the fun. Let me know
what you think.
Statler Gilfillen
statlergil@hotmail.com
