Female Image (Beatrice) 1965

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing of Beatrice at an unknown date with hatching that feels calm and meditative. I can imagine the artist carefully building up the image with thousands of tiny lines, slowly bringing Beatrice to life. There's something about the repetitive nature of the hatching that feels like a form of devotion or prayer. I wonder if the artist was thinking about the literary Beatrice, Dante's muse, as he worked, or if this was a more personal vision. It reminds me of other self-taught artists like Henry Darger, who also created intricate worlds through obsessive mark-making. For me, it's about the physicality of the process, the way the artist's hand moved across the paper, leaving its mark. And ultimately, it's about how this conversation between artist and medium can inspire us to see the world in new ways.