Nicole Fein on Jill O’Bryan

Grounded by air,
This is a meditation.
One by one, each breath becomes a mark.
The marks are steady and regular,
yet each one is unique.
To observe one’s breath without affecting it;
to move with it, without moving it.
To become conscious of the unconscious.
Documenting presence, the drawing is a diary,
ever evolving.
The collection of marks—
40,000 breaths taken together—
becomes the collective breath.
There is vitality in the awareness of mortality.
The breaths are numbered yet eternal.
The drawing is as the breath: elemental,
basic and profound, intimate and expansive,
atmospheric and whole.