Untitled (Fish with Bowl and Moonlight)
Medium: Alcohol Marker and Chalk Pencil
Date: 2023
Project/Body of Work: Ongoing Private Illustrated Manuscript Project
An interior scene rendered in alcohol marker and chalk pencil. A goldfish suspended mid-leap above a glass bowl, water splashing in a brief arc. The bowl sits on a wooden table in a dark room before a window illuminated by moonlight. A teacup sits nearby, still and intact.
Moonlight casts architecturally throughout the scene. The fish hangs in air, a moment caught between containment and consequence.
Process Notes:
This drawing developed through an iterative process of intuitive sketching and compositional refinement. Early forms were abstract, circular shapes and curved gestures, which gradually resolved into representational elements. The fish, bowl, window, and cup were constructed through layered studies and reference gathering before being integrated into a unified composition.
The image operates through containment and interruption. The bowl suggests a self-contained interior state, water held within glass, surface undisturbed until the leap. The teacup introduces the quiet measure of time and relationship. The fish, suspended mid-air, becomes a sudden release from what had appeared stable.
The outcome of the fish’s impulse toward freedom is ambiguous. The composition holds that tension, the split second when something internal breaches the surface and reveals itself before consequences are considered.
Like other works in this ongoing manuscript project, the drawing gathers recurring motifs (threshold, reflection, interior weather) into a single scene with elements arranged deliberately, but the emotional logic beneath the image remains intuitive rather than illustrative.
