Scrimshaw
Heads by Scrimshaw, a different artist. These twenty-five works are the earliest in the collection, most of them drawn on February 16, 2021, the rest over the following days, with a few returns as late as December 2023. They hang together because they share one way of drawing: a head built from loose, looping colored line, on a bright ground.
The line is the whole method. A head is a loop, then another loop in another color, then a third, until the face is a weave of blue, red and yellow lines that never quite close. Eyes are rings. Teeth are zigzag. Hair is a crest of straight strokes.
Watch the halos. Several heads have a ring or an oval drawn above them. The ring sits over the head like a hat, a halo or a thought, and it is one of the marks that sets these heads apart from the nnxyz masks in the other wings.
One Evening in February
February 16, 2021, from the afternoon to midnight. Ten drawings in seven hours, from a pale face in blue line to a long-haired face in pink.
Scrimshaw1
scrimshaw.eth
A face drawn in one blue line over a pale ground of yellow and lilac discs, with a square chin, two small eyes and a zigzag of teeth, a crest of blue strokes above. The line wanders from the brow down the nose to the jaw and back, and the pale color behind it is laid in soft overlapping shapes. It is the earliest work in the whole collection, from the afternoon of February 16, 2021.
Scrimshaw2
scrimshaw.eth
A skull drawn in looping blue, white and yellow line on blue, with ringed eyes and a mouth of purple teeth, vertical strokes falling around it like hair.
Scrimshaw3
scrimshaw.eth
Three heads outlined in thick black line on purple, side by side, their faces filled with orange, white and blue scribble, their noses and mouths drawn in a few black strokes. The black outline runs around all three without a break. It is the first drawing in the collection with more than one face, and the one where the line is heaviest.
Scrimshaw4
scrimshaw.eth
A face in dark purple line on light blue, with ringed eyes, a red mouth of teeth, and a crest of purple strokes, drawn in sixty-nine strokes.
Scrimshaw5
scrimshaw.eth
A skull face on yellow framed in red line, with a cross on its brow, two ringed eyes in red and blue, a mouth of white zigzag teeth, and green hair drawn in straight strokes. Blue zigzag runs across the lower half. The red frame is a box drawn around the head in a few strokes. The face is a skull, but with hair and a frame it is also a portrait.
Trio1
scrimshaw.eth
Three narrow figures stand together in a field of orange, their upright bodies assembled from red, blue, white and yellow lines. Looking can alternate between three characters and one interwoven pattern.
Scrimshaw6
scrimshaw.eth
A painted face in brown on yellow with long hair, two blue-ringed eyes and a small mouth, blue line drawn over the paint.
Scrimshaw6
scrimshaw.eth
A large head nearly fills the square, assembled from thick red, black and yellow lines. Its eyes receive different frames: a purple ring on one side and orange loops on the other. Yellow and blue ovals organize the dark mouth into repeated rows.
Scrimshaw7
scrimshaw.eth
A pale face with a spiral drawn above it, rays of red and purple fanning from the spiral, two ringed eyes and a mouth of white zigzag teeth.
Scrimshaw8
scrimshaw.eth
A face with long black hair drawn in straight strokes over pink and teal lines, on yellow, a pink halo above, the face a few black strokes.
The Next Days
February 17 to 22, 2021. A faint face on orange, a haloed face on purple, a grid of sixteen faces, and three more heads.
Scrimshaw9
scrimshaw.eth
A faint face in white, blue and yellow line on orange, tipped to the right, with blue strokes for hair, in fifty-two strokes.
Scrimshaw8
scrimshaw.eth
A haloed long face on purple, drawn in dense purple, red and white scribble, with a gold ring above the head and two ringed eyes, the second of two works titled Scrimshaw8.
Scrimshaw12
scrimshaw.eth
Sixteen faces in a grid of four by four on purple, each drawn in loose black and white line with a different expression: one grins, one frowns, one has a mouth of teeth, one looks sideways. The grid lines are drawn by hand. It is the most densely drawn work in the Scrimshaw collection, and the only grid.
Scrimshaw13
scrimshaw.eth
A face with a wide black ring above it like a hat, drawn in black, red and blue line on pale green, with a target eye and an X eye, a red mouth and a spiral at the chin.
Scrimshaw14
scrimshaw.eth
A blue head on yellow with a crest of blue strokes, two ringed eyes, and a mouth open on black zigzag teeth, a spiral at the upper right.
Scrimshaw15
scrimshaw.eth
A long-haired face on blue with red and purple hair falling in long strokes, two ringed eyes with crosses, and a mouth of black zigzag teeth.
Figures and Later Heads
March to August 2021. Five figures standing together, a boxed face, a spiky head, a crossed eye, and two heads on black.
Stick Together
scrimshaw.eth
Five upright figures stand close together, their long colored bodies filling the square. Thin lines cross between them, while differences in facial marks and color keep each figure distinct. Loops above their heads repeat the same gesture across the group.
Scrimshaw 18
scrimshaw.eth
A boxed face on orange drawn in purple, blue and yellow line, two ringed eyes, a mouth of zigzag, and a spiral at the chin, with loops running out past the box.
Scrimshaw 21
scrimshaw.eth
A spiky-haired head on yellow, drawn in black, red and blue line, with a ringed eye, a long nose and a mouth of white teeth, in sixty-nine strokes.
Scrimshaw 24
scrimshaw.eth
A face on purple with one eye crossed out in yellow, a ringed eye beside it, and a grin of white teeth, drawn in dense purple, red and yellow scribble with a cloud of black loops above for hair. It is the most worked drawing in the Scrimshaw collection, with 320 recorded strokes, and the crossed eye is drawn as a yellow X in a red ring.
Scrimshaw 33
scrimshaw.eth
Two heads on black, drawn in pink, purple and yellow line, facing each other, with a red loop between them like a handle.
Returns, 2023
Four works from August to December 2023, two and a half years after the rest: a dark head with a red mouth, a face with a third eye, a brown face on black, and a crowned skull.
Scrimshaw 40
scrimshaw.eth
A dark head on grey with green hair, a crossed eye, a red mouth of teeth, and colored scribble inside the face, drawn in black and purple line.
Wobbler
scrimshaw.eth
A face on teal with one ringed eye at the left, a blue eye at the right, a third eye drawn on the forehead in a diamond, and a mouth of black bars, drawn in orange, pink and blue line over a soft ground. A black hook hangs from the left ear. The title is Wobbler, and the face leans to the left as if it might.
Scrimshaw 41
scrimshaw.eth
A brown face on black drawn in white and black loops, two ringed eyes and a third ring above, a mouth of white zigzag teeth, in seventy-two strokes.
Scrimshaw 42
scrimshaw.eth
A skull in profile on black, facing left, drawn in pink, cyan, yellow and red line, with a yellow crown floating above it and a ringed eye, its teeth a row of yellow and orange bars. The line is thick and clean, every color separate. It is the last work in the Scrimshaw collection, from December 14, 2023, and where the first face was one blue line on a pale ground, this one is a dozen colors on black.
Compare with Scrimshaw1, in this roomClosing
Look again at the first face, one blue line over pale color, drawn on a February afternoon in 2021, and then at the crowned skull on black from December 2023. The line got thicker and the ground got darker. The loops stayed.