Charcoal and pastel on black paper
From the exhibition Between Forms
There is a point after strain when things begin to settle.
Not necessarily a return to what was before, but a recalibration — a gradual coming back into the body, into a sense of presence, and into a form that feels recognisable again.
Return to Form sits in that space.
The figure is more defined than some of the earlier works in Between Forms. There is weight and confidence in the body. She occupies the page differently. Her stance feels deliberate, almost assertive, while the marks around the head remain looser and less resolved.
I like that contradiction.
The mind may still be catching up, but the body is beginning to inhabit itself again.
For me, returning to form isn't about restoration to some previous version of oneself. Experience changes the form. Strain changes it. What emerges afterwards carries those marks.
The charcoal gives the figure structure and depth, while the pastel introduces something less contained — traces of colour moving through the darker surface. The figure is becoming clearer without becoming fixed.
That idea runs through Between Forms: that we are not always one coherent, finished version of ourselves. We move between states. We lose definition. We gather ourselves. We recalibrate.
And eventually, something begins to take shape again.
Not the old form.
A form that can hold who we are now.
