Contemporary Drawings
by Michelle Flanagan

     This drawing was one of the last in the series of round format or tondo drawings I made during the winter of 2003. As with much of my artwork, I didn't begin with a specific concept. However, I did approach this drawing with different stylistic interests. I wanted to see what would happen with a figure placed as close as possible to the edge of the paper.
     As the figure emerged it became uncomfortable, and I started to feel a sense of slipping. Next thing I knew, it became a statement about Social Anxiety Disorder (S.A.D.). Conceptually, it became an attempt to make visible, through psychological and emotional realism, what social anxiety disorder looks and feels like.