Maggie Jay Horne - Converging Lines
In art, lines represent a conceptualization of the real world that can help us in our perception of objects, depth, distance, etc. Appearing as marks on a paper, lines help us perceive a three-dimensional, dynamic world represented on a two-dimensional surface.
Today, I want to introduce you to the work of artist Maggie Jay Horne. I met Maggie about 10 years ago at a meeting with our friends at ICRAVE. We were there at the same time for two unrelated projects, but my architect friend introduced her to me as a potential artist to work with in the future.
Maggie is a multidisciplinary artist who has created a variety of work including drawings, photographs and textiles. Across the board, the one characteristic that defines her work is her ability to see lines. I want to pay special attention to her project STICKS, a collection of ink drawings on vellum that are perhaps the most salient example of her skill in portraying movement. The success of these pieces are based solely in her commanding skill of creating converging black-ink lines over the substrate. This creates a phenomenal effect of movement and depth that is only multiplied by the semi-transparent surface of the vellum.
Color, contrast and relative size are some of the cues that the brain takes into account in order to understand a visual scene. Generally, these cues are delineated by virtual lines that the eye follows to grasp the environment, for example using converging lines to help illustrate the perception of depth.
Specifically, Maggie creates STICKS by reducing reality down to its most primal element: lines. Each of these lines is straight, and ends in hard points to create hard-edged divisions in the field of the paper. A combination of these lines are laid out on the surface of the vellum in a converging manner which, at several points, overlap, creating specific thickened landmarks on the vellum. This gives way to the perception of a three-dimensional scene. Despite the straight nature of these lines, the harmonic spatial relationship between them and their overlapping points form suggested contiguous curved lines that invite the eye to move around the surface with softer bends. In fact, the principal element that gives the work a dynamic quality is not there in concrete terms.
Several studies point at a preference for curves over straight lines. As it is in my nature to question findings from research, I always try to find variations in the studies that may have yielded different results. In the case of STICKS, given the obvious straight lines that form the work, I was hesitant to accept the claim of preference for curved lines. All that was until I realized that what really engaged me about the work was the clear, albeit implied, curved nature of the work.