Stranger Danger
Drawing our way out of a blind spot.
Ever since I arrived in Toronto for College at 19, I have drawn the people of the city on transit. I also worked at the Eaton’s Centre Mall in the centre of downtown Toronto and I’ve shared litho prints in a former post about that time. Much of my drawing was recording the images of others. I was insulated from them by my drawing. I didn’t have to deal with the other as a subject and could remain in my introverted bubble. The drawing created distance as much as it brought each person into the pages of my sketchbook.
I first noticed a change in my sketchbooks in 2006. The images in this post are from my sketchbook in early 2006. I can see a marked difference in my ballpoint pen drawings at this time. I can think of one, ok actually two reasons why my drawings changed. Stranger danger.
My perspective on the people around me was no longer just my relationship to how they crossed my vision, but how they affected my surroundings and a larger concern for social cohesion. I had changed because I was the parent of two kids, 5 and 7 years old. These two beings were now out in the world as they were both in school and asserting their own marvelous individuality. It mattered to me what the world offered my kids.
The fragility of the social contract became more apparent (perfect word) and my sketchbooks tracked a wider view of the environment and content of the world. I couldn’t withdraw, as having kids meant that I was attached to new community’s of people. My circle was broadened as they made friends, did activities and needed to expand their experience.
I think we can draw a better world, and I don’t mean drawing a world to escape into, rather finding a path between detached disinterest, and rapacious self interest. I wondered about the culture we were offered by the generation that returned from the carnage of World War 2, but obviously I should have been more concerned by the children of these broken people. When we rend the bonds of our social fabric, and refuse to see the complex interconnected relationships of community we become blind to each other.
I think it is up to us as creative people, that draw, write, read and have circles of influence to reach out in our lives to support the best of our human community—celebrating the richness of a world where empathy, concern, and caring is in direct opposition to the zero sum game of transactions. Who knew that stranger danger would be making a return appearance, marching and saluting smartly across the world stage in 2025.