It

Artist: Sterling 2026

Some art announces itself.

This one didn’t.

When I came across this graphite sketch, I was in Sterling’s archives. He is juvenile in his workspace.But not in his work.

It speaks.

I found It almost buried in the sketches, sitting there with no ceremony around it. No grand presentation. No explanation. Just a plastic cover.

That is the thing about collecting. Sometimes the most important piece in the room is not the largest, the loudest, or the most expensive. Sometimes it is a sheet of paper with a line on it that makes you stop.

Restraining with empty space, void of color. The detail in each tooth. A flesh-eating plant. A contemporary drawing that feels botanical and brutal at the same time.

To signal what to his audience?

Where was he when It was birthed?

That is what keeps me coming back to It.

There is something almost violent about pruning. You cut something back because you believe in what it can become. You remove what is dead, what is heavy, what is no longer serving the life underneath it.

Scripture says:

“Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” — John 15:2

That verse lives somewhere inside this piece for me.

Pruning is not always beautiful while it is happening.

It can look severe. Exposed. Almost cruel.

But it is an act of expectation.

I see that tension in It. Growth and cutting. Hunger and restraint. Something reaching while something else is being stripped away.

I had it framed in a light grey felt with a black lacquer frame. It’s really raised the piece. The felt gives the drawing softness and space. The lacquer makes it serious.

Suddenly this little sketch has the posture of something priceless.

Which, to me, it is.

I love It because it’s clean and powerful. I feel the life in it. It feels like pruning. It’s honest.

Sterling hasn’t met a medium he doesn’t excel at. But I have a particular love for the sketches because there is nowhere for an artist to hide in a drawing like this.

No production.

No spectacle.

No color to seduce you.

Just hand, paper, instinct.

The line either has life in it or it doesn’t.

This one does.

Sterling is a special artist to me.

I’m excited to share more from my private collection. Not simply because the pieces are beautiful, but because I believe collecting is also an act of recognition.

Sometimes you see the value before the rest of the world has decided what to call it.

STERLING
It
Graphite on paper
Contemporary drawing
Private Collection, 2026