Into Current: Sketch Book to Encounter
Retrospectively personal as counter-current (or not): 16 drawings divided into 4 sections plus one to discuss, explain, comment on: Art as self, life as art-self
Introduction: This post consists of my drawings which I did in the past
Brief adding to the introduction
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3. Live drawings (as to be an act on the spot in live)
a. Birds
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b. Wild flowers
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c. Water scene
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a-c: I’d call them drawings from nature. Drawing birds on the site as live sketch is obviously very difficult, for wild lives are not static nor stone or wood statues, which means they move as they like when not being asleep. A group of wild flowers has the same kind of phenomenal mobility such as winds caressing them or bees coming by, because our eyes can not technically capture the scene unlike a camera does. In my experience from doing live drawings, I noticed the mind restructure what I saw, then my hand constructed it on a 2D surface (drawing book 5x8 inches) with a pencil or color pencils. This process is very rapid. Artists often describe it as the work of eye-hand coordination. The dates of those drawings are far sporadically back circa 2005 and 2015. Ten years are quite a chunk, I admit. But, my original date noted in the first page of this drawing book, summer 2005, is a bit misleading for I switched around it with other ones (the same 5x8 inches) for live drawings over years.
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d. Street performer: violinist
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e. Street performer: saxophonist
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f. Street performer: cellist
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g. Street performer: drummer
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d-g: I love to draw street performers. Those drawings were musiciens performing on streets and in open spaces for public. There was a time for me when I was drawn to an idea that my live drawings could be considered my proper performance in front of street musiciens, except that, in my case, I did not collect gratuities from those who pictured or video recording me and my acts. Once, a pair of women playing a country music in singing asked me whether I would want a share. I said no. Their drawings are not above. The time when I was out most to draw performers in cities (d-g in Boston, except e in Chicago) from circa 2005 onward toward 2013 or so. This period is also a bulk. But, I did not draw in that way everyday. About d-f, the proportion between the performers and their musical instruments is absolutely incorrect in my drawings. The performers did not slow down for my sake, of course, and their actions were subtle and rapid. This is another example of the coordination of eyes, mind, hand in my end. In fact, those drawings were done as live on each site, but at the same time, they were my creations rather than copying the scenes. As for g, the drummer was beating several buckets, upside down, small and big, and his movements were ultra quick. Accordingly, my drawing became a creation of line-time.
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h. Utility pole and lines (I)
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i. Cranes
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j. Utility pole and lines (II)
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k. Utility poles and lines
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h-k: One of the most abstract cuts and lines in urban settings is for me a set of utility poles and lines which connect one pole to others to service places. Usually, I look them up and the background is often the sky, blue or not, with clouds or without. Birds also fly into a picture as if cutting through. I love utility poles and lines to draw. They also are steady, which means they don’t move by themselves. Cranes are other objects which I used to love very much for the subject matter for my drawing. Cranes are usually moving, if not they are resting. Whichever is the case, cranes in their structure can be stylized in my creative act for drawing lines. The drawing k is the most elaborated work among h-k. I might have been pretty well settled on the spot, though I do not remember when and where exactly, for I did not have an organized habit to make precise memos for such information to record when I drew.
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l. Cityscape (I)
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m. Construction site near airport
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n. Cityscape (II)
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o. Houses and trees
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l-o: Cityscapes are most interesting to draw because of their complexities in and by which there are so many visual informations. More urban, more true. A fascination resides in this question: how to resolve all those things I see, in order for a simple coherence to make in the quickest manner? Unlike a work in an art studio or an atelier, live drawing outside on the spot, in my view, should be fast and fresh in a series of see, pick, grasp, draw and go. Done! Reduction and abstraction are inevitable. Again, this is a creation, not copying of the view. One also recalls that landscape and cityscape paintings of Egon Schiele (1890-1918) are beautifully stylized and geometrically resolved, so is true for Gustave Klimt (1862-1918). As for Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), his landscape paintings are already abstract.
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p. Small writing table
p. Still life is easy to draw for clear-cut reasons: It is immobile. Interior is the setting in frequency. Thus, concentration and fewer or no distractions are the sources for a stable drawing to create. Now, let me ask you one thing. Guess, please, what I was satisfied most and happy with this drawing? I recorded the answer below.
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4. Art as self, life as art-self
In such a view, there is not actually so much of presence or counter-presence, or existence or counter-existence, to be all as current or counter-current. Youths of certain by-gone era might have dreamt of a splashy life of artists. Today? I’m not sure about that. Jumping into the current to swim on or against, it may depende all on one’s taste guided online. Could it be? On July 15, I published an audio piece Self, Life, Art (II) . Which is somewhat long with 17 segments in 43 minutes altogether. I mention the piece with the insertion of its link, not for suggesting all segments to revisit, but for Segments 8, 9, and 12 to make a mark. They are, respectively, about inspiration, art education, and how and why I write in the same way that I make art (in this case, specifically 3D works spoken of, but my live drawings have the same trait). Again, the relevancy is on Segment 8, 9, and 12.
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Closing / à bientôt