The Artist's Magazine
The Artist's Peace
For Ted Washington, art is a solitary endeavor; he creates alone and tries to capture this same solitude in his work.
By Andrew Borneman
 I have always liked to draw and always liked to spend time alone, so I am not sure which one came first," says pen and ink artist Ted Washington.
Washington has been drawing since the age of four, expressing the theme of loneliness he first experienced as a child in drawings like Sundi and Shelly (above). He delights in the challenge of balancing the contrasting blacks and whites that coalesce to forge dramatic sources of light. Washington uses a stippling technique to make the portraits as black as possible; "there's no white applied," he says. Using four different rapidograph pens, he produces the different values he needs. In Sundi, Washington created contrast by leaving as much ink off the lips, nose and cheek as possible, using the white space as a source of light. In Shelly the dots get lighter and less frequent as the eye travels to the left side of the paper-the side of the face with the most prominent light.
The process of creating art for the San Diego resident is a strict methodology. Before he creates anything, he photographs his models. In fact, much of this photography inspires his work. He then conjures an idea of what the piece will be. Finally, he draws, first with pencil and then with pen and ink. The entire process is spent in self-imposed isolation, forging just the right "mental space" for Washington to create in an optimal fashion. "Art for me is like a form of meditation," says the artist.
Pen and ink has evolved as Washington's medium of choice, simply because of the convenience of travelling with pens. When he relocated to San Diego in 1988, the "only thing that made the trip were my pens; everything else got left behind." Creating on the go has been a habit for Washington, who travels often. This kind of lifestyle has lent itself more readily to pieces such as Sundi-simple, economic and done in the low maintenance pen.
"My favorite part of art is the anticipation I feel at watching everything come together at the end," says Washington. "The greatest contribution I can make is to keep making art and perhaps I'll come up with something that hasn't been done before."
ANDREW BORNEMAN is an editorial intern for The Artist's Magazine
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Sundi (pen and ink, 20x30) was a finalist in our 2002 competition, Shelly (pen and ink, 20x30) explores dramatic light sources.
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