The Answer is the Problem
Relevance Realization and Life Drawing
This week in the studio we looked at relevant information, we started with the ‘candy’ experiment.
Which row would you choose? Ok, the experiment was for 4 year olds and the kids all picked row 2, because they thought the longer line of candies means MORE candies. They lack the knowledge to make an informed choice because they are looking through one lens when looking at the 2 rows, empty space becomes meaningful.
Empty space is very meaningful to visual artists/designers and this is where some folks, especially those that use the puerile term ‘doodle’ for drawing, will suggest, “Find your inner child, think like a kid…” Yeah, accept 4 dollars for a $100 dollar bill, because you are getting MORE—-don’t think like a kid, they’re idiots—focus on what they don’t think about, like not worrying if their drawing is good or bad. Back to relevance. One of the great lessons in a drawing studio is separating the relevant from all the other muck we tend to throw on paper in the futile hope that something will look like something.
The difficult part about drawing from life is pretty much everything, but it begins with a chicken/egg—what comes first conundrum. The students see the act of drawing the model correctly on paper as the problem and the model as the answer. Every hair, cast shadow and fingernail calls attention to itself and the student obediently scribbles down details like a waiter for a large party of very indecisive diners. We are in service to what is infront of us.
The model is the problem and the drawing is the answer. This ain’t math class, we don’t come up with the same answer, the same technique or steps taken. I despise methods that substitute some terrible shared visual effect as more relevant than finding your own visual voice. And it’s in that individual discovery that each person has to be challenged. I pose a question to be answered for each drawing exercise and this derails the typical copy what you see pedestrian crossing of representational drawing. Why the hell would we attempt to copy life onto newsprint? We are building our response to the complexity of drawing from life and we should concentrate on finding our language rather than following a recipe for a meal that offers six courses and no sustenance.
As a therapist should be a good listener, I’m a good watcher. I see where each person starts and where they end up. At the end of the drawing, it seems for some people as a relief to turn the page and run screaming from whatever it is you did on that page—like when you wake up in the morning and see your terrifying feet and sigh with relief when you put on socks—-maybe that’s just me. Before the page turn I ask everyone to STOP and interrogate their drawing—-is it saying what you want it to say? This is the key aspect, drawing as having a purpose rather than a mechanical act of copying or the even worse idea of ‘mastery’—-atleast the word with all of it’s negative baggage is past, but the bad ideas embedded in the concept are still very present.
So, this week I tried to follow my own advice of shifting my relevance, or atleast questioning why I was approaching a problem as if it was an answer and dropping into an auto-defensive mode. An approach that is passive, habitual, and scratches that itch—-but doesn’t move the dial on dealing with a problem. I need to yell out STOP before I turn the page on my response to situations, and to question—-why did I do that? In life drawing, we have a pad of paper that we can look back on to see our progress and offer perspective, in life we need to find something similar, a way of capturing our meandering progress—-yeah, ofcourse I advocate for everyone to use sketchbooks—everyone can draw something, or journaling, or the combination in visual notetaking. There is a big gaping hole in our culture, we put the stake through the heart of religion, but the need for meaning is still up in the air looking for somewhere to land.