Spotlight on Intersections@5: Linn Meyers

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

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Linn Meyers, Untitled, 2014. Gift of Lucinda and Carlos Garcia

The unmediated directness of making a drawing is the result of a line being an extension of the hand and the body. The line is universal.

At the Time Being was a site-specific wall drawing made in response to Van Gogh’s The Road Menders. I chose Van Gogh’s work as a starting point because the method that the artist used to apply paint to his canvases shares some of the same qualities of a drawing.

Twenty-five years ago, I began my career as a painter. Over time I became enamored with the distilled qualities of drawing, and eventually drawing became my primary focus.

While working on the Intersections project in 2010, however, I found that I was not only drawing on the wall, but also using a paintbrush to enhance the image. That return to painting as a mode of expression during the project at the Phillips has stuck with me, and Untitled, 2014 is evidence of that. The piece blends drawing and painting; it puts the two modes of expression on equal footing. The lines in Untitled, 2014 have a calligraphic quality that was achieved with a paintbrush; however, the act of making a line is, in and of itself, an act of drawing.

Linn Meyers

We’ve Got Your Back

Quite a few submissions at our American Moments make-your-own portrait station have literally turned their backs on traditional portraiture. One participant was even inspired by a photograph from the Phillips’s visitor’s guide to the museum! What do you think the people in these portraits are looking at?

Clockwise from top left: C.S.E; Phillips Collection Visitor’s Guide; Siana from Kensington, MD; Anonymous; and Anonymous.

Clockwise from top left: C.S.E; Phillips Collection Visitor’s Guide; Siana from Kensington, MD; Anonymous; and Anonymous.

Purr-fect Portraits

Clockwise from top left: Ellie B. from CA; Sarah K. from MA; Anna; Joe Walsky from DC; and Tracey from VT.

Clockwise from top left: Ellie B. from CA; Sarah K. from MA; Anna; Joe Walsky from DC; and Tracey from VT.

Visitors to our portrait-making station in the American Moments exhibition have not just been capturing human likenesses. These submissions featured a number of animals. Here are a few that we think are doggone terrific!