Sketchbook 3, 1960-65

Sketchbook 3 marks several important changes in style for Parsons. In the previous sketchbook, Parsons had begun selectively emphasizing elements of life to dilate through her sketches. In this sketchbook that process has been dilated even further, with Parsons beginning to focus more on the rendering and emotional qualities of the image than on the mimetic. Her selective usage of line allows her to create visually light figures, which, when positioned correctly, dance across the pages of the sketchbook. Her ability to isolate the necessary physical signs to signify an emotion has become so prevalent that in some cases she only creates human forms to serve as the vessel for emotional gestures, taking a foray into the creation of simulacra. She also begins mixing and intermingling different types of materials to create more expressive and visually interesting compositions. In all, there are many elements which can be seen as direct precursors to Parsons' first collages from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Upon first glance, this sketch seems to be the same as any other landscape that Parsons has created. However, in fact, it is a different kind of scene entirely. It is a genre scene of a ship in port, likely in Portland, that is in the process of loading. In the first sketchbook Parsons has several scenes of ships in port, however, none of these images included the crew of the ships. This image is unique in the sense that it captures the feeling of the toil of the crew. The expressiveness is then highlighted by the usage of color upon the chimney where the name of the company is placed. This emphasizes the focus of the image upon the expressive nature of one element, namely the workers, within a composition.

This portrait seems to generally be within the stylistic tendencies of Parsons. However, the quality of the character is enhanced by the specific lines that Parsons has chosen to render the figure. Compared to other portraits this one is slightly more reserved. It is not as rapidly sketched as other portraits and seems to reflect the overarching trend of Parsons selecting the essential elements of an image to reveal a more expressive nature.

In this sketchbook, Parsons seems to adopt a style that is more distilled and focused. As an example of this tendency, this image is constructed of a selective few lines with three distinct colors. Through these selective elements, Parsons is able to create an image that is at the same time evocative and condensed. Each figure has an accessible emotional posture, but none of them seem to take up an excessive amount of space. In this way, the image is made as emotional as possible, while not being too overwhelming from a structural standpoint.

This image is part of a larger series within the sketchbook of several characters in anachronistic dress that are dancing. While this series does focus on the theme of expressiveness from the selective usage of line, it also focuses on the element of movement. The series and this image, in particular, create characters that seem to be floating through the composition. This is the second of the major themes investigated by Parsons in this sketchbook. The creation of movement and momentum within an image can be some of the most challenging, yet evocative, elements that give life to a composition.

As an extension of the theme from the previous image, this scene creates movement with the usage of several well-controlled lines. In this image, Parsons is able to isolate the most expressive and explosive elements that are necessary to the composition while also stripping away the excess. This leaves the composition with only the most powerful elements, resulting in a system of necessary parts that are working perfectly together.

This image points to a different trend than the previous images. Rather than examine ways to distil down an image, here Parsons is experimenting with ways to build up images through different materials in one composition. The mentality behind putting together different mediums in one composition can potentially be traced into later collages by Parsons, however, there are still several years before Parsons' first professional collage.

In line with the previous image, this image expands upon the same concept. The usage of multiple materials within one image for the purpose of creating a full composition becomes the whole concept behind collage. In the case of this image specifically, Parsons lays a groundwork with the brick red sketch and then creates a more rapidly sketched set of accent lines around the basic form of the bear. This both highlights the form of the bear as well as giving it a greater expressive quality.

This sketch is from several years later than the other materials found in this sketchbook. This image is from Parsons' time abroad in Venice. It adopts a style that is a mix of her later genre scenes, such as the ship in port at the beginning of this sketchbook and her landscapes from the first sketchbook. This is likely a result of Parsons using her sketches as a form of a diary or as documenting the places that she visits. It is set apart from earlier sketches as the focus has shifted from depicting all elements with equal fidelity to selectively making the most impactful elements naturalistic while letting the other elements blend together.

It is difficult to discern if these characters were drawn from life, or if they are purely made up from Parsons' imagination. However, in either case, it seems that Parsons has taken the liberty of altering the figures to fit a visual agenda of nonchalance. These characters, even if they were created from real models, are representations of characters that are unimpressed. The true focus of this sketch is the metarepresentation of the key visual codes required to represent emotion, which classifies them as simulacra. This distinction is important as Parsons' collages focus on the creation and manipulation of simulacra. By taking from previously created images and reconstructing them to have a different meaning, collage is necessarily an art form predicated upon the redefining of visual systems into new and vibrant systems in dialogue with personal style.

This sketch articulates a trend in the later images of this sketchbook where Parsons is moving away from naturalistic characters towards those that are more uniquely expressive. This can be seen as a product of the varying interactions between lines. She creates systems which are close enough to that of recognizable human features that the viewer is able to empathize with the figure while being abstracted enough to have an unsettling quality. In this way, Parsons is experimenting with the creation of simulacrum. She is representing not a figure from life but is creating a visual system that portrays the visual codes which signify sorrow or sadness. Through engaging in the metarepresentation where visual codes of emotion are recreated as their own images, Parsons is beginning to explore the ideologies that are seminal to collage.