This project evolved during a period of temporary hearing loss which left me profoundly aware of the sounds that surround me every day. In response, I began a practice of listening meditations that soon led to these drawings.

Sitting within various outdoor settings, I attentively listen to the calls and songs of birds in our shared habitat. Using both hands to mirror each ear, I responsively make marks that correspond to what I hear. I do not look at the drawing as it is being made, surrendering composition to chance. Each drawing is made over a prescribed period of time, determining when it is finished. Weather conditions, time, date and place are noted and the birds heard are identified and recorded on the back.

Sound is always an intricate part of the landscape as we experience it but rarely is it represented in the visual arts. Switching senses, from sight to sound, the drawings give visual form to my auditory experience. I find sitting within these gardens offers me moments of solace, allowing me to savor quiet moments during a volatile time. The drawings are the tangible records of accumulated fleeting moments that I experienced while there. I find them simultaneously charged with energy, chaotic and unsettled, therefore alive, which is how the world feels to me right now.

Call and Response was awarded a NYFA Fellowship in 2023 and was exhibited at the Kentler International Drawing Center and Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts where it was award Third Place by Samantha Friedman, curator of Drawings and Prints at MoMA. Works have also been exhibited at KinoSaito in Verplank, NY, The New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain CT, the Arts Exchange in White Plains, NY and the Hammond Museum and Japanese Garden in North Salem, NY.

RITA MAAS

RITA MAAS