Pablo Garcia

In Isolation: Ink

In Isolation is a series split into media elements: pencil, water, ink, and salt. While traveling across the world on academic sabbatical in 2019 and 2020, I decided to “go back to basics,” exploring and improving techniques with graphite, watercolor, pens, and various sketchbooks to document what I saw on four continents. When COVID-19 prompted severe lockdowns, creative work became restricted to scenes and supplies inside our Melbourne, Australia apartment. In Isolation evolved into a series of images, made by hand, recording the anxiety, boredom, and intimacy of quarantine.

In Isolation: Ink is made on various smooth, cold-pressed papers with Micron pens, ruling pens, and brushes with diluted sumi and bistre inks. Some drawings explore ink’s ability to create consistent, crisp lines. Others use stippling or ink washes to build grades of value. Before COVID-19, I used ink to draw three-dimensional artworks in European museums, such as Michelangelo’s David and Ancient Roman sculptures. After the first lockdown in 2020, these same techniques were applied to images of my family in quarantine.

For other works in the series, see In Isolation: Water, In Isolation: Pencil, and In Isolation: Salt.