Booklet Library


forty nights at sea
Steve Chellis

32pg, 14 x 21.5cm, color laser, staple bound, 8/30
Brooklyn, NY, USA : Bluetan, 2014


"Forty Nights at Sea by Steve Chellis, takes a pragmatic approach to drawing. The pictures present the same scene with an emphasis on different areas and quadrants; creating a systemic yet intriguing series on the act of drawing and compositional studies.

In Chellis’ words: 'I’m a painter. A painter who happens to be an artist. Sometimes I am wary to call myself an artist. This is because I’m not exactly sure what an artist is anymore. There are the elements of art that I embrace such as transformation, timelessness, and particularity. Artists used to be workers like everyone else. Just like the mason, the farmer, or the blacksmith. Now days they are fools, pranksters, and con-men. I’ve played the part and have grown tired of playing cat and mouse.

Forty Nights at Sea was a drawing exercise that I embarked on during the summer of 2013. The task was to do a different drawing of one scene forty times over. Like most things related to drawing I end up where I thought I would. Not that that's a bad thing. It’s rather quite interesting.'" – The Publisher





Contributed by the publisher.