Outside Over There
"Outside Over There” is a series of composed blind contour drawings created using graphite on paper. Blind contour drawings are a common warm up technique meant to forge a connection between the artist's hands and eyes. The process is very simple: you look only at the object you’re drawing, never at the drawing itself. I began using this technique to document what I was seeing on my phone during the ICE raids in Minneapolis in early 2026. The results are drawings that are disproportional, abstracted, and yet eerily detailed in their focus on weapons, hands, feet, faces, all bounded by the viewing device used to see the image. Through the careful yet abstract lines rendered in graphite and embossed into the paper, careful observers can see masked ICE agents moving through the work, as they are moving through American cities and terrorizing the residents. The series has since expanded to include a wide range images from news sources. The layered images are simultaneously representational and abstract, providing a fleeting impression of our contemporary moment, and giving new meaning to the rallying cry “don’t look away.”