Index Card Cosmos

While living in Berlin I always had multiple drawing projects in the works simultaneously. Some drawings require constant concentration and focus, while others a meditation in which my hand seems to do all the work without conscious thought. Sometimes the more challenging drawings provide for a more exciting process, but I've always found it really important to balance those projects out with a consistent dose of the more meditative work. While in the process of drawing one of the most complex and time-consuming drawings I've ever done, I maintained balance through a simple series of drawings on index cards. The idea was simple: on each index card, draw a unique fictional planet. The most important rule behind this process was to never overthink it - simply draw a circle and let instinct decide how to fill it. Over the course of more than a year, I ended up with 48 completed index cards, which I affectionately called the Index Card Cosmos. Scroll through 30 of the final 48 cards below:

Creating a Constellation

As I was creating this cosmos collection, I couldn't help but let my mind wander into ideas of what to do with them. My initial thought was to chart the drawings as a new constellation by selling them online and recording where they ended up on the surface of the globe. Instead of a constellation of stars in the sky, we could collaborate in plotting a planetary constellation that envelopes the entire planet Earth.

Instead of selling the cards online, however, I ended up giving them away as parting gifts to the many people who were important to me during my last couple years in Berlin. I like thinking about my friends carrying the planets with them as they move from apartment to apartment, city to city, forming an ever-changing constellation of the people in my life.