Drawings
  • 2d art

decorative header image from Volume III Issue 2 · Spring 2017

“For some years … he had felt the need to …supply himself, by measurement and delimitation, with spaces which were hardly more than “forms on paper” but which, for a short while at least, enabled him to construct himself and make himself invulnerable.”

Peter Handke, “The Long Way Round”

My recent drawings of organic objects were inspired by traditions of trompe l’oeil painting, natural history and scientific illustration. I work from specimens, sketching and photographing to compose a larger image. I’m absorbed by the task of paying attention and rendering forms and surfaces. During this process, objectivity gives way to a personal interpretation that explores the limits of observation, our connection to the natural world and our joint vulnerability.

Specifically, these three drawings show bone and animal specimens of local animals (opossum, and deer) borrowed from the specimen collection of the Biology Department at Grinnell College. They are part of a larger series I’m working on, in which I explore and juxtapose elements from this collection. Rootstalk leaf-bug icon marking the end of the article's text.

Incomplete Quadruped, charcoal on paper, 30in x 12in by Tara Shukla, 2016

Incomplete Quadruped, charcoal on paper, 30in x 12in by Tara Shukla, 2016

'Jawbone', charcoal on paper, 30inx22in, by Tara Shukla, 2016

‘Jawbone’, charcoal on paper, 30inx22in, by Tara Shukla, 2016

'Pelvis', charcoal on paper, 30inx22in, by Tara Shukla, 2016

‘Pelvis’, charcoal on paper, 30inx22in, by Tara Shukla, 2016

About Author Tara Shukla
Portrait image of author Tara Shukla.
Photo by Anjali Jones
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Tara Shukla has a BFA from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), an MFA from Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec) and a Digital Media certificate from Toronto’s Digital Media Studios. Her work has been in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, the Edith Smith Gallery at Grinnell College, the Waldemar A. Schmidt Gallery at Wartburg College and the University of Iowa Hospitals’ Art Project, as well as being part of the University of Iowa’s online archive, The Daily Palette. She’s had drawings in the two most recent International Drawing Annuals (INDA 9 and 10) produced by Cincinatti’s Manifest Gallery. In 2015 she was the Minnesota Museum of Science’s Artist at Pine Needles Residency. She has taught drawing, painting, graphic design and art appreciation in art schools, museums and colleges. Most recently she has taught observational and experimental drawing at the Des Moines Art Center, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden and for the Grinnell Area Arts Council.