“I like to think of Anthony Coleman’s drawings as a pantheon of deities, a crossover universe of characters worshiped through mass-consumption, the artist’s folkloric refigurations an act of love. Gumby, Spongebob, Carebears, Lizzo, Garfield, Moss Man, C3PO, Flame — as rendered by Coleman, these are icons and idols, but also friends. That they are iconic, these superheroes and comic creatures, is unavoidable by the way they’re recognizable even when Coleman makes them strange. But in doing so he also makes them his own, and we sense that there’s a deep connection there, between the artist and subject, and we know so because we have it ourselves, a feeling of intimacy with these pop figures, even if we share knowing them with millions. With his idiosyncratic treatment, Coleman returns the aura to franchised creations, works of art made grand in the age of mechanical reproduction, his small colored-pencil drawings, a testament to how today pop is the raw material for lore. ” -Whitney Mallett

I Like Drawing is part of Blurring Books’ new series of Limited Slim Publications (LSPs). -Publisher