Korey Martin (b. 1989) is a pencil-on-paper artist. He draws All Things, and in so doing, simultaneously draws the universe, the great many things within it as well as himself, having all emerged from some shared, single source at the beginning of everything before going on to be, in some topological fashion, temporarily arranged as this or that.

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Korey's drawings are a method for contemplating the countless arrangements that the universe has placed around him as well as mindfully participate in this eternal process. His work holds reverence for the feeling that all things are indeed variations on the same thing--the universe itself--and so to draw any single thing is to simultaneously draw the universe, including himself. 

Not unlike the musical or floral arrangement, Korey plays the oldest standard--nature, the universe, god--and hopes for his drawings to emphasize the faint sense of recognition between the self and all things--all often quite still yet carrying a great momentum as things "in the midst of things". He is often reminded of this intuited, embodied knowledge and feels drawn to the  vast array of things around him as so many fleeting homecomings.

By focusing not just upon the "appearance" of things, but their total experience--how it feels to behold life--his drawings attempt to evoke a somatic, pre-intellectual response by doing with drawing what cannot be done with words.In this sense, Korey's drawings are beyond what he "thinks" of them, their subject, himself, and attempt instead to speak directly to intuition, thereby exploring forms of realism not restricted by visual fidelity or intellectual congruity. He seeks a suprasensory likeness or spiritual realism unbound by, but affectionate towards form as phenomena emerging from all that cannot be described through form. As the saying goes, the eye cannot look upon itself.

As with many practices exploring the nature of reality and direct perception, drawing is one more method to "clean the mirror" of the mind and spirit so as to better reflect life--a practice which maintains a playful curiosity for all that vitalizes the senses and aids him in his efforts to discover life as it truly is rather than as he believes it to be. Nevertheless, many perspectives make their way to his drawings, including belief, however impossible or silly they may be, resulting in a dissonance between things as they appear within and beyond the drawing. 

Dissonance and the perception of incongruity are vital, in that they are a reminder of the incomplete view, the impossibility of a total vista or that one can reach "complete" knowing through intellect, the inaccessibility of the horizon, and of the necessity of circumambulation. Likewise, familiarity intensifies incongruency, making the slightest variation or discrepancy seem exaggerated. Humorously, this is reality vs expectation, what things can be rather than should.

Finally, it reminds him that things are beyond judgement, beyond description, for a thing takes on as many forms as there are views of it. In this manner, he allows his work to be beyond him and his explanations, but deeply and ecstatically of and for himself. Just as he is of and amongst the universe, so too are his drawings, having all similarly emerged.

While his drawings may be personal, Korey Martin often works as an illustrator for friends and strangers, near and far. His work has appeared in magazines, anthologies and college journals, on clothing, used by restaurants and hospitality services, branding for small businesses, a perfumery laboratory and even an elementary school library. Recent clients include Clue Perfumery, Popeye Magazine & Actual Source Books.

Press/Writing

KOREY MARTIN b. 1989; COOKEVILLE, TENNESSEE

--PENCIL ON PAPER--

AN INQUIRY INTO THE MARK MAKING IMPULSE,
TRACING ITS SOURCE
TO THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS
FROM THE PREMORDIAL CAVES TO LIFE TODAY
FROM THE INTERNAL TO THE ETERNAL

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REPETITION -> ANTICIPATION -> VARIATION -> DISSONANCE -> 

EXPANSION -> CLARITY -> ACTUALITY -> PRESENCE -> 

HARMONY -> UNITY -> ABSORPTION -> MYSTERY

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EACH MOMENT IS THE BEGINNING ARRANGED.

TO DRAW A THING IS TO DRAW THE UNIVERSE, 

THE COMMON ORIGIN, TRANSFORMED.

CHANGE IS REVELATION. 

NOTHING NEW. MORE OF WHAT ALREADY IS, REVEALED.

A PROCESS OF DISCOVERY. NOT DECISION.

REPETITION CREATES ANTICIPATION. 

ANTICIPATION EXAGGERATES VARIATION.

DISSONANCE REVEALS THE REALM BEYOND KEY. 

THIS IS EXPANSION.

"NO WRONG NOTES. ONLY SOUND." 

NON-JUDGEMENT.

BEYOND GOOD OR BAD. 

BEYOND FORM. BEYOND PERCEPTION.

REALISM BEYOND APPEARANCE.

SUDDEN INSIGHT CULTIVATES CLARITY. 

ALL AS IT IS, NOT AS IT SHOULD.

TRUE HARMONY. 

HERE WE FIND THE "GATELESS GATE".

KEYLESS.

INSIGHT INTO ACTUALITY.

EQUANIMITY WITH THINGS AS THEY ARE, 

NOT AS THEY ARE BELIEVED TO BE.

BEYOND HARMONY IS UNITY.

BEYOND UNITY IS ABSORPTION.

TRANSCENDENCE INTO, NOT FROM, LIFE.

WHEN THE WATER FINALLY STILLS

AND YOU GAZE UPON ITS SURFACE

UNDISTORTED

YOU SEE THAT, AFTERALL,

THE REALITY YOU SEEK

IS THAT IN WHICH YOU HAVE

ALWAYS RESIDED.

YOU WILL MEET YOURSELF THERE,

THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS,

EXACTLY AS THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.

HOWEVER THEY MAY BE ARRANGED.

"GOING ABOUT LIFE,

GLEANING WHAT I MAY,

A DRAWING EMERGES.

A LITTLE GLEANED THING."

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