One of my teachers, Rebecca Hawkinson, used to remind me, “every time you touch your canvas, you’re making a statement.”

That’s true whether one means to state anything or not; it holds true for statements good and bad alike, accurate, inaccurate, considered or careless.

What, then of all those lines that surround whole bodies or body parts in master drawings and are clearly not part of the figure at all?

They are questions, or better yet, statements reconsidered.