ARTISTS STATEMENT August 2021

THE ROY A. MANNING BOOK (THE LEDGER DRAWINGS):

Sometime in the early 2000’s I bought a large ledger book (15 x 21 inches) from the 1940’s or early 1950’s from these two guys that came to SOHO once a week and sold things from the back of a truck on the corner of Broome Street and Greene Street in Manhatten, where I had a studio at the time.

The book was kept (by a bookkeeper) for Roy A. Manning who seems to have had a company with a fair amount of expenses, all of which were beautifully notated in this ledger book. Roy had a brother named L.B. who frequently received checks from Roy.

Sometime around 2015, I began to make drawings on the pages of this book, inspired by the book’s history and the careful notations and beautiful handwriting on the pages which gave each drawing a starting point and made the paper less intimidating. For me, working on a surface that has existing marks feels comfortable in a way that a blank surface does not.

This series allowed me to experiment and develop imagery that was both found and imagined, much of which came from my long time interest in Mexican popular art, cartoons and patterns such as stripes and plaids.

As with most of my work, I am inspired by images from many sources, including: company logos and signage associated with corporate identities, generic commercial stamps and tools associated with printing or wallpaper. I collect rubber and wood block alphabets as well as rubber stamps of all kinds which are recurring in my work. I also print, color and draw on Japanese mulberry paper which I use as collage in my work.

As of now, there are about 60 drawings in the Ledger group made with pencils and inks and colored pencils, rubber stamps, collage and acrylic paints. The subject matter while always humorous and irreverent, varies as ideas come and go and I am often inspired by stories or events that take place in real time. I will continue making drawings in this series until the pages are used up.

THE BAG WORKS ON PAPER:

The “Bag Drawings” in this show are a different story. Some years ago I started using the image of the plastic bag as the principal subject for a series of works on paper. Inspired by the ubiquity of heavily used (and discarded) plastic bags on the streets (and in the trees) of New York City, I was struck by the endless variety of shapes and designs these bags could assume.

In the beginning the bags I made were quite literal and I was mainly concerned with the signage the bags presented. Again, corporate logos, images and words. Painted on plastic sheeting with acrylic paint, I would peel them off the plastic and glue them onto stretched paper backgrounds.

As this group progressed, I moved away from the peeled plastic (and more literal approach) to a more organic collage based approach. These were made with prepared papers that I would make in advance by painting and drawing on Japanese Mulberry paper and cut to shape the bag image. This process, (still involving a foreground and background) now began to involve actual painting.

The “BAGS” are still an ongoing aspect of my work but have gradually led to a collage based painting style that mostly occupies me these days.

- Billy Copley