Always Time by Ben Bauman is a process oriented meditation on gravity and grief, assembling a series of observational sketches executed during a week-long drawing binge. From October 2021 to October 2022, Bauman experienced the loss of a succession of close family members and friends. Seeking peace in the wake of death, Bauman turned to drawing as a ritual of revelation and restoration. Drawn and printed in the first 2 weeks of October 2022, this volume traces an encounter between a barrage of charcoal marks and the organic substructure of our entropic chariots-namely the human skull. Charcoal and paper are embraced as totems of death and rebirth.
Ambidextrous, expressionistic lines lay scattered as the debris of a shocked psyche. Existential terror and personal sorrow gaze out from the turning page as they are gradually absorbed by acceptance and humor. Is it always time?
