I draw goddesses and nightmares in black & white as a form of catharsis. I have often spoke of adoring women and have fancied myself as being madly in love a few times in my life. In reality, I’ve sabotaged more relationships than fostered true love, and have wrestled with an undercurrent of misogyny most of my adult life. In exploring my own fears, doubts, ignorance, and, most importantly, personal faults, I encourage my audience to question their own perceptions of racial, social, and sexual equality. My drawings are detailed, disturbing, and delicate meditative exercises.
I choose to work in pencil more than any other medium to achieve intimacy and rawness (I don’t erase when drawing in pencil, utilizing a lead holder with no attached eraser). When you look at a drawing, you know that human hands S T A T E M E N T
created it. That’s what I seek, in drawing portraits of goddesses or in documenting my night terrors. I want to physically manifest psychological barriers in the hopes of knocking them down one day. Paper can burn, and my hope is that my mental connections to the dread or ugliness that inspired some pieces can turn to vapor with them.
Currently, I’m working on larger pieces, venturing from the security and privacy of journals in hopes of exploring new concepts that are steeped in social commentary and life experience. Among these are expressions of Black skin through line strokes and shifting line weights, bringing more depth and lighting to my line art (using layers of lead or ink, I build bodies), and telling stories indicative of the African Diaspora through my drawings. Being self-taught, my practice has led me to a point where I feel confident enough to take my art past the personal and towards a place of social consciousness.
- L. McBride
w w w . L A N C E M C B R I D E . c o m