In Dialogue
I met with Joshua Drayzen at Massey Klein shortly after the opening of his solo exhibition, Spirit Wave. A Brooklyn-based artist, Drayzen recently surpassed 1,000 consecutive days of drawing. I wanted to learn more about the enigmatic images and the devotional practice behind them. What I discovered, however, was that this was more than just a habit—it’s a ritual that shapes and invigorates his entire creative practice.
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Caitlin Reid (CR): Let’s dive right in. How has daily drawing shaped your artistic evolution?
Joshua Drayzen (JD): I’ve been drawing every day now for 1,015 days, close to a three-year period. In that time, I’ve created a sustained kind of engagement with drawing that I never had before. It’s allowed me to get past any kind of creative obstacles or stagnation. I’m able to create drawings that are more immediate and instinctual as a result of that– and I feel much more satisfied creatively.
CR: Incredible. Was committing to draw each day merely practical or was it about cultivating self-discipline?
JD: It was self-discipline—it was making sure I surrounded myself with other drawings, text about drawing, and imagery I wanted to recreate. I treated everything I looked at as if I had a transducer in my brain, converting a line from an image and making it my own. One passage that renewed my excitement for drawing was John Berger’s Berger on Drawing—the closest thing I can think of to the Gospel or Bible on the subject. He wrote that the impulse of drawing comes from the hand rather than the eyes.
CR: I can see how this ritual would make drawing feel automatic, more of the body than of the mind. But why now?
JD: It was knowing that if I didn’t do it now, I never would. I work full-time for a railroad scheduling maintenance for locomotives. I knew that with the time I had available in the day, I wanted to find a way to create my own personal cosmology through a series of recurring motifs that I’ve created over the past few years, including my crusader moths and shadows rendered with Magic FX colored pencils which delineate a supernatural space—an idea that I’ve always been fascinated by.
CR: So this was actually a project years in the making, which finally came to fruition. Tell me more about the motifs that appear in your work.
JD: In addition to the drawings of my table, my workspace, and the moth, I’ve also created these humanoid owl-mummified avatars that act as the spiritual guides between one drawing and the next. With the imagery and characters I’ve created, I was able to bring it all together in this show. The title Spirit Wave comes from both these spiritual characters and the supernatural energy flowing through my ritualistic drawing process. Spirits bound by dead nails and waves formed with Magic FX pencils emerge from my workspace, existing in a liminal state between the visible and invisible.
CR: Wow, fantastic. So it’s spiritual iconography—ritual, myth, cosmology, crusaders. What’s the undercurrent? You’ve mentioned it’s not religious, yet the practice feels deeply devotional.
JD: I think much of the imagery I’ve formed a strong association with comes from esoteric sources and illuminated manuscripts—specifically The Book of Hours. I also have a strong love for outsider, visionary, and spiritual artists. What I really connect to and respect is not just the obsession to create, but the necessity of it. That has come from years of drawing—being enamored by other drawers, seeing what the medium can do, and hoping to reach that level myself in some capacity. So I’ve incorporated that as a recurring element in all these drawings.
Beyond that, I began reading various texts on mysticism and religion, finding ways to incorporate certain passages into my drawings—if only because the act of drawing itself can be so devotional. The commitment it requires is likely just as strong as that of someone with a religious affinity or interest.
CR: One of the most curious things about these characters is that they exist in a world of their own—one that you’ve invented. Will you walk me through some of the imagery and symbols in your personal lexicon?
JD: Sure. One of my recurring images is my desk. I see it as a space within these drawings. I wanted to find a way of understanding myself—both physically, spiritually, and emotionally—before I would take on any other kind of subject matter. I also found that throughout the past year, while working towards the show, each new drawing brought incremental shifts. The changes were minute, but each drawing started to feel more activated.
CR: Like this one?
JD: Yes, the torches are illuminated or accentuated with pearlescent watercolor. I love how the drawing feels more interactive—it can be both static and dynamic at the same time. And trying to imbue it with that kind of energy goes beyond the act of mark-making.
CR: And the torches in and of themselves can be symbols of knowledge, passion or visibility.
JD: Yes, and here’s another recurring motif: the nails. They come from an article I read in the Science section of The New York Times about dead nails. A second-century tomb discovered in Rome had a coffin that was surrounded by 41 nails lining its perimeter. The heads were twisted off, and the shanks were bent at right angles. Archaeologists discovered that these “dead nails” were believed to have once held some kind of occult power, and ancient Romans used them as a way to bind these spirits, to keep the dead at bay.
CR: You mean, to keep them in the ground?
JD: Right.
CR: Otherwise, they would perhaps, um, join us?
JD: And also to keep the living from pilfering.
CR: So it’s about the boundary between life and death. Or a boundary between the dead and the ones that remain.
JD: Right.
CR: Fascinating. Are these, in some ways, self-portraits? Who is this moth character?
JD: Yeah. Inadvertently, I would say that the torches that you pointed out, which are being held by the moths, came from the idea of a moth being attracted to a flame and how dangerous that concept is. But here, they’re wielding their own torches. They’re taking on the form of a crusader, a Templar—they’re doing some kind of good. And while it’s dangerous, it’s also lighting the way for them. And that might be something that I unknowingly created or slotted myself into.
CR: So it’s a dynamic between being a leader and a follower?
JD: Being a leader and a follower, but also being both– leading oneself.
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This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. The exhibition Spirit Wave is on view at Massey Klein until April 12, 2025.
About the writer: Caitlin Reid is an artist, writer and curator based in Brooklyn. She is a co-founder of the curatorial group Immaterial Projects and Director of Programs at Tempest Gallery in Ridgewood, Brooklyn. Reid studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art from 2010-12 and earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Rutgers University in 2015. Follow on Instagram @caitlinreid.nyc