I Think It May Be Nine In the Afternoon

It’s been a while since our last class but that doesn’t mean I have been up to nothing at all.  Our first assignment was to practice drawing the negative space.  I found this exercise very enjoyable because for once I felt like I could draw!  It’s amazing how your perspective changes from drawing the space around the object instead of the object itself.  This method works for me because it forces me to stop paying attention to all the small details.  The small details are most certainly important but it’s impossible to consider the smaller details when you don’t even have the broader subject drawn yet.  I’m sincerely glad that I was taught how to do this; it feels as if my artistic skills have dramatically increased.

The second assignment was a reading from John Berger about the importance of visual arts.  The very first thing you read is:  “Seeing comes before words.  The child looks and recognizes before it speaks.”  I’d never really thought about the fact that we first see before we learn to speak.  Yet, the words we learn to use to communicate and to describe our emotions cannot even begin to describe the true extent of them.  Love, the obvious example, happens to be one of the hardest emotions to capture with words.  That is because love is such a physical and deep emotion.  It certainly cannot be described by words alone.  The same goes for heartbreak, depression, and despair.  These emotions have plagued many artists throughout history, all of them trying to capture this emotion, their art speaking to many viewers.  The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes to mind, now that I think of it.  Visuals truly do speak volumes more than texts have the ability to.

The reading also brought up a good point about cameras.  They destroy a painting’s initial meaning because they take away from the fact that it is unique.  Even if a painting was meant to be transportable, it still was the one and only copy.  It never occurred to me that the invention of the camera could be a bad thing.  I have always viewed the camera as one of our greatest inventions.  I still believe it is, but now I can see why taking a picture of another piece of art takes its true meaning away from it.  Since I was a young child I can remember seeing pictures of the Mona Lisa in textbooks, on televisions shows, and such, which has made me realize that I have no proper appreciation of the painting, which in my opinion is just wrong.  However, I am still split in that I probably would have never seen this picture in my life unless we had cameras that have allowed me to see this painting.  This reading really got me thinking; I liked it.

I really wonder if our perceptions of major artworks would be different if we never had preconceived notions about them thanks to the availability of them due to the invention of the camera?  Also, do you think it is possible to only communicate with visuals or are words necessary for higher level communication?

Our third assignment was to draw a nude model.  I have to say this has by far been the most interesting experience of my life.  I kind of felt like I had no idea what I was doing but I found that I really enjoy drawing torsos, legs, and arms.  Also, I was very thankful that I had learned how to draw negative space because this really helped me to be able to draw the model’s figure.  I will admit that prior to attending the drawing session I was incredibly nervous that I would completely suck at drawing.  However, after the session I was quite proud of myself! :)

For the final segment of this post I would like to share with you some drawings I stumbled upon that I thought were fantastic!  They are all called "Fingerings" by Judith Braun.  I can't even explain why I love them, they just appeal to me.  Perhaps it is because I have never seen anything like it.  She dips her fingers in either charcoal or pastel and then draws in either abstract forms or bilateral symmetry.  Here are some of my favorites of hers:

(Images taken from Google Images)