Donovan’s Bubble Drawings are distinct from her three-dimensional accumulation works in that the process is both more directly painterly and dependent on chance. Here Donovan used soap bubbles as a drawing tool. Combining blue ink and soap, she used a straw to blow bubbles in the liquid. She then carefully transferred bubbles of different sizes and patterns onto an expansive sheet of white foam core. The bubbles were left to either pop or dissolve, leaving a unique image that captures an ephemeral occurrence. So while there are chance elements involved, it is also plain that Donovan controlled both the strength of the mixture and more or less where a given constellation of bubbles might land, such that some areas are fainter than others, creating the illusion of depth on the two dimensional surface. The resulting work – at eight feet square – has a monumentality coupled with surface delicacy and subtlety. This is not heroic action painting a lá Norman Bluhm, but a lyrical gesture towards celestial cartograph
