More meanderings through my sketchbook

The last few weeks I've continued working/playing/experimenting in my sketchbook.  It has been one of the most freeing periods of my artistic life.  I don't think I've ever before given myself such a stretch of time without goals or expectations to produce for a series or a show.  My perfectionism has, thankfully, taken a back seat, and my playfulness has come to the fore.

Here are some pictures I've done lately:

Street scene of Main St across the street from the Visual Arts Center.  Practicing one point perspective.  Pen and ink, watercolor, and graphite.

Pattern I more or less copied from a book about visual journaling.  Pen, ink, watercolor, watercolor pencils, wax crayons.

I gave my student the assignment of drawing an apple 10 times in 80 minutes.  I decided to do the same thing.  Until I got going - I couldn't let go of the prettiness of it and wanted to complete the drawing. I started in watercolor then my student wanted to use them so I had to move on - I switched to color pencil after that

After I finished the above apple, I went on to another one.  First I glued some random Dur-a-Lar to the paper just to give me some different textures to play with, then I painted it in acrylics.  I was fascinated to note how the paint acted on the Dur-a-Lar as compared to the regular drawing paper.  It resisted.  I used gold paint for the highlights on the apple.

Sometimes what I do in the sketchbook is affirmations or assertions

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I let myself be bold.  This was one of those times.

Zendoodles are never far away.  This one is Micron pens on Dur-a-Lar.

I use my sketchbook when I'm in figure drawing sessions on Friday evenings at the Visual Arts Center (all are welcome - $6/person - it's a great opportunity to draw from the model)  Sometimes my drawings aren't all that successful because I'm still learning to work from the figure from life.  The picture on the left is how it looked after 20 min.  then I brought it home and had a great time cutting up magazines and making it into something completely different.  Whether the pieces are skillful or not, I'm learning so much from doing them.  It is changing the way I approach art completely.

This is the same model.  I drew the gesture drawing with green Micron then put the body on it with a graphite pencil.  I used the scrap from a magazine to glue it into the sketchbook because glue doesn't seem to work too well on Dur-a-Lar.

A friend told me about this quote.  I thought it was worth noting:  "There's a crack in everything.  that's how the light gets in."  Leonard Cohen

Workin' my stuff.  And what a great place to do it.

This postcard was my place marker at my niece's wedding I went to lately.  Va Beach in the old days.

Another picture from figure drawing sessions.  I love how the white and black look on the red background.  This one made me happy.

21 things that didn't work that night when I was 16.

 

An earlier figure drawing session.  I drew the figure on Dur-a-Lar which is slightly see through - it's translucent - then did a pattern on the page behind it.  I'm intrigued by the juxtaposition of the two.

Allowing myself to play.  Zendoodles.  Colors.  Sumi ink, micron pen, watercolors, on rice paper.

As you can see, I'm not sticking to any one medium or paper or subject or type of creation.  Whatever arises is what gets expressed.  It's a very right brain way of approaching art.  I'll write more about the difference in my next post.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying these meanderings and am very curious to see where they're going...

Continued from yesterday:  another thing about judgment that fascinates me is how insidious it is and how subtly our judgments form.  This week I've been listening to the book Body Surf by Anita Shreve.  It's a fine book - nothing special, but nice to listen to while driving around doing errands, etc.  In it she is describing what a woman is wearing - I won't get the quote just right, but Shreve writes something like, "She was wearing a very unfortunate choice for a 60-year-old - a sleeveless white top which lets her arms show."  What do I get from that?  The fear that when I'm 60 I shouldn't wear a sleeveless white top which shows my arms or else someone will judge me.

And then what?

What happens to the judgments?

Do they harm me?  Even if I don't know about them?  Or do they harm the person having them?

What happens to them?  Are they in the ether?

What do they say about the judge?  Why do we judge others? 

I'm really thankful that I didn't grow up with all sorts of strictures about what I was supposed to or not supposed to wear.  I guess I knew you're not supposed to wear white pants after Labor Day - or perhaps I learned that after I left home.  But I'm left wondering why not?  Is there a white pants police?  What will happen if I do?  Why does it matter?  Who really cares?  And WHY?

I know judgement hurts when it lands on me.  I don't like it when someone I care about judges me or something I've done or a choice I've made.  I try very hard to be thoughtful and careful in my choices, so when someone judges them, it sometimes challenges me.  I usually feel sad or wrong or bad.  It takes a while to rebound and to remember that my choice was thoughtfully made, and I feel sorry that the other person doesn't like it.  It usually causes a rift between me and the judge.

Likewise when I judge someone else.  There is then a rift between us because I'm holding my judgment between us, whether I've been indiscrete enough to share it or not.  I'm still thinking it and wanting  him/her to be different than he/she is.

What I often find if I take the time to reflect, is that something the other person has done has triggered something in me that I'm uncomfortable with.  For example, if I judge someone for being overweight - I don't have to look very far to find the cause of that - I'm afraid of being overweight. 

What are your thoughts about judgment?  Do you catch yourself being judgmental sometimes? Any thoughts you'd be willing to share about it?

I'm looking for some good books to read about this topic and would be grateful for suggestions if you have any.  Thanks!