To work within the graphē – from the Greek word “to draw” or “to write,” the compound meaning “to paint with light,” or “of a certain affinity” – artists AJ Kyser and Lara Saunders are mediating works together that, inherent in their technical process, have the ability to capture a realistic likeness. Though physical likeness is a marginal aspect; in many cases together they consciously move away from the ability their respective mediums give them to depict someone. Creating a chance operation equivalent to a portrait. Kyser’s photographs mark a departure from the boundaries of photography by deriving subjectivity from Saunders’ approach to figurative illustration. We are drawn backward to a more courtly time when the mechanism of photography took after painting and drawing. Moreover, it challenges the boundaries between the nature of illusion and reality. The subjects are irrevocably affixed in Kyser’s cyanotypes, lith prints, and seriality. Evoking the tactical quality of graphite – fragmented and manipulated – embracing a fusion of technical precision and subjective interpretation. Suggesting that the artists’ hands are as critical as their eyes in the photographic process. From the hands of the draftsman, Saunders’ subjects emerge within a larger graphē, searching for a wholeness that eludes them. Deliberately gestural – encompassed in a myriad of graphite shadow shapes – the work captures the breadth of human form through the intentional absence of detail. Her renditions of the body, though some partial, appear vivid, grounded in historical influences, and objective in their life. Her compositions become less about the subjects and more about her presence and imprint of them. Thus, they are examples of self-expression and self- creation. This collaboration represents an exchange of inspiration and technique. Kyser and Saunders lend each other the strengths of their respective mediums, surpassing literal limitations and fusing context with symbolic meaning. Between the portrayed and the viewer stands the artists, with shared intentions but distinct in approach– if not revealed, then certainly present. – Matt Lovsted