For Tracy Michele, who always sees them first.
"I wish you to consider that I have been speaking of what I wished to accomplish in these pictures, rather than what I have done; for I may have failed in these efforts. I should, nevertheless, be much gratified if you could see them ...."
- Thomas Cole, letter dated May 1828

Friday, May 29, 2009

to forms around us


“Drawing can accommodate all attitudes, whether we are reacting directly to forms around us, refining forms from memory, inventing new forms, or even planning complicated relationships.”
- Bernard Chaet, The Art of Drawing

“We should talk less and draw more.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I want an entire year that I can put all my focus and effort towards my artwork. But with time often being dear, I try every day to put some effort towards drawing. The immediacy of drawing, that ability to pick up a pencil and just go at something, free of all the preparation that other mediums can demand, is one of the things I enjoy most about it. I have an easier time getting right to the heart of it with a pencil rather than a paint brush. Drawing is the basis of all the arts and, for me anyway, a continuing and, hopefully, endless effort to describe and make sense of what I see.

The drawing I’ve posted here was very enjoyable to work on. I was staring at this orange inside a plastic bag and suddenly it was not some mundane object. It was full of interest - - - there were both solid and transparent areas, physical weight contrasting with the light, crisp emptiness of the bag. I like these contrasts and they were fun to draw.