During the course of his career, Ian Jehle has met, learned from, and worked directly with many of the artists and thinkers who have influenced him. Burdened by the “anxiety of influence,” and a resulting desire both to emulate and differentiate from his cultural predecessors, Jehle began making giant portrait drawings of these mentors and peers. Combining the grandness of monumental portraiture with the close-up intimacy of drawing, Jehle wrestles with the complicated relationships that we often have with those who are most important in our lives. "I can't say whether what I do is an act of respect or insolence, tenderness or enmity. My goal is simply to end up with an image that makes me feel something close to what I feel around the actual person,” Jehle says.
The artist begins his skillfully executed pieces by taking multiple photographs (sometimes surreptitiously) of his subject. He then uses the photographs to create several small drawings, which, in turn, become the source material for the large, boldly-rendered final work. The end result is a highly subjective impression of an individual and also the relationship between that individual and the artist.
