Jim Hodges, Untitled, 1992

Narrator: To make this drawing, the artist Jim Hodges used his own spit to get the runny, watery quality of the ink marks. He spoke to writer Cynthia Carr about his process in 2017.  

Jim Hodges: I was thinking about kissing, for sure. And I was thinking about, my saliva and about my body and…

Cynthia Carr: Yeah.

Jim Hodges: It was something that I got from Bazooka bubble gum when I was kid. You got Bazooka bubble gum, you open it up and if you lick your, you licked your skin, you could transfer a fake tattoo onto you and that was—

Cynthia Carr: Yes, right.

Jim Hodges: That was what I did. So it was like that was, that's childhood. … 

Cynthia Carr: [Laughs.]

Jim Hodges: Transfer drawings with spit. With my saliva. And, and funny, you know, I don't know if I was using it—I was spitting on my drawings then too. … And I still use spit when I make drawings, especially charcoal drawings. …Because it provides—it just opens a material in one more way. I don't have to grab water—I don't need any of that. I can just use myself.

Cynthia Carr: Right.

Jim Hodges: I'm into that.

Narrator: This interview is from the Archives of American Art.