COMMON THREADS

by Jim Gilbert

About twenty-five years ago I digressed from doing just non-figurative painting and began exploring ways in which both the "visible" and "invisible" in life could be portrayed with pen and ink drawings. From a very humble beginning this has evolved into a direction which makes use of recognizable objects and figures to depict themes that range from the esoteric to the mundane. My latest efforts have resulted in this book of 52 drawings.

These drawings were done almost entirely with dots, and by design, have a cartoon-like flavor that adds lightness and entertainment to subjects that are often construed as ponderous. Doing this work was a lot of fun. It was also very demanding, both in the execution and the conceptualization.

My concern was with the gray area of the subject, and the portrayal of conditions to the right and to the left of its core. I feel that my job has been to present a very broad "picture" of each subject so that the viewer can come to his or her own personal interpretation and hopefully get as much enjoyment from looking at the drawings as I got from creating them. The titles are translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese & German.