Christopher Troutman          
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      Artist Statement:

      I focus on drawing as my primary means of expression in my studio research. Typically, I collect source materials
      from direct observation or photographs, which I synthesize in compositional exercises as sketches that lead
      to final works. Alternatively, without preparatory compositional sketches, I begin drawings as marks and line from which I
      identify and develop representational subjects. Figures and environments in individual compositions present singular
      moments within a suggested narrative, which I enhance by dividing images into sections to tell stories in multipart
      works. Additionally, I use multiple sections in drawings to juxtapose imagery from the US and Japan, the two places
      I live each summer.

      My subjects are human figures in contemporary urban settings presented from unexpected vantage points in order to reveal
      the latent interested of everyday visual experiences. Influences on my work are artists that focused on composition and
      the relationship of the human figure and their surrounding urban space, which includes artists Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper,
      and Robert Birmelin. Also, graphic novels and comic books have had a large influence on my work. For instance, I work
      largely from my imagination after putting imagery to memory from sketching. When my imagination proves insufficient,
      I return to support images that initiated my research. As a medium, the immediacy of drawing, specifically using charcoal or
      ink typically, facilitates a strong connection between thinking and putting marks on paper. Additionally, the use of deep space
      from foreshortening and linear perspective, as well as dynamic point so view and storytelling, in graphic novels, specifically
      in work by Leinil Yu and Jerome Opena, has had a significant influence on my work.

      Lastly, my drawings are large-scale, which I hang unmediated by frame and glass, bringing the artwork into the audience’s
      immediate space and making the process each drawing has undergone directly visible. The scale of the drawings, the figures
      within them, as well as composition and point of view, place the audience in unexpected, and sometimes overwhelming, spaces,
      enabling the resonant experiences from which the drawings are inspired achieve a similar resonance with viewers.