Sketchbook 3, Image 10

Sketchbook 3, Image 10

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.

Eunice Parsons

Eunice Parsons Papers

1960-1965

8.5" x 10.5"