Webster's Dictionary defines size as "the dimensions, proportion or magnitude of anything." A wide range of variables guides our conception of size. In some cases the specifics of an object type and what is considered its norm influence how we might label something... as in small, medium or large, according to guest curators Paulette Singer and Helen Meyrowitz. We judge by comparison, they say. She has a small foot, compared to others. He lives in a large house, by the standard particular to his era, place and culture.

In Drawn to Size, dimension is an intentional and critical element of expression determined by the artist. It is equal in importance to the media, content and other elements of the work. The size may be determined by the artist's method of drawing. Jane Herrick relates, "In this exceptionally large format I am always on my feet when I am working. Being physically engaged brings a certain activity to the work that I don't believe could be there if I were sitting at a table." The large size of Timothy Hawkesworth's drawings (his smallest work is 48" X 34") also reflects how he is engaged by physical activity. "The space I end up with tends to be large. This allows me a full orchestration from the very small or delicate mark all the way to the larger bodily gesture. It allows them to play off each other, to contrast."

To a great extent we think about size as it refers to ourselves. Christine Hiebert thinks "about a person's smallness, about the fragility of human existence in the big wide world, about the tenuousness of will and self in an unstable and ungraspable space." For Hawkesworth, the drawing becomes a living environment. "I want to be in the picture in as many ways as I can. I want to hang out there for as long as I can. I want to inhabit it."

An artist may challenge himself or herself to work in a particular size, to explore and rethink difficult or accepted ideas. Christine Hiebert writes that the medium format is "for me the most difficult in achieving a tension in terms of scale. The challenge is to focus on the mark so that the viewer become engaged in the subtle activity in the drawing; so he becomes less aware to the edges of the paper, of the format which is very ordinary." Paulette Singer queries, "Just how small an area can I cover with marks and have the object remain a drawing? Will the very small 3 dimensional object or maquette be considered a drawing, as in a preparatory study? How many notions of scale, size and definition of drawing can be reconfigured?"

For some the selection of size relates to sense of "rightness" - not too large, not to small. Hawkesworth contends, "It is a kind of instinctual mathematics, a natural geometry. It has to feel just right." For Helen Meyrowitz, what feels right is a 41 x 29 _" sheet. "This is the size that is most amendable to the sweep of my line and the scale of my figures. It is as though my hand carries its own memory of the dimensions of the paper."

For some artists, big and bigger does not address their issues. Randall Reid explains, "I prefer compacting and managing intimate spaces. The small scale offers just enough room to elaborate without being excessive." Paul Shore responds, "I do not usually refer to my drawings as small. I refer to them as intimate. Because the ideas I work with are intimate in nature, I want the scale of the work to reflect this. Because I use blood in the work, a little goes a long way in getting a visceral response. At a larger scale there is the danger of pushing the work into the realms of exploitations and violence (which I do not want)." Singer elaborates, "I am enthralled by intimacy in art, intrigued to be absorbed in a tiny space, to find a complete visual universe, reduced in size but expansive and generous in image, medium, surface and content."

Drawn to Size includes artwork that ranges from 1.5" X 2" to 52" X 120 and aims to consider the role that dimensions play in the work of the seven artists presented. While the choice of size is intentional and personal, the structure and aesthetic principles of drawing are fundamental to all work whether small, medium, or large.

Hillwood Art Museum is located on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, at 720 Northern Boulevard (Route 25A) in Brookville. For more information about Hillwood Art Museum or events, please visit the museum's web site at www.liu.edu/museum or phone (516) 299-4073. Hours of operation for Spring 2002 are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday 9:30 a.m. -7:30 p.m.; and Saturday 11:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m.