ManicDDaily

Hello! I have been away for a while, strapped into a seat of life’s rollercoaster. Highs/lows; joys/sorrows. Time can hold it all in just one hand.

The ups and downs have made me very conscious of the importance of finding beauty in the specific moment (Beauty and, maybe also, calm.) I think of a twirling dancer, a whirling dervish, turning in circles, keeping an eye on a fixed point.  Only I am not actually advocating fixing on a fixed point, in the sense of a specific goal, so much as keeping an eye out for the ever-present (if sometimes dodging) good.

Sorry to be so cryptic! 

The pics above and below are from a new zoom drawing class with the wonderful Peter Hristoff, an American artist with roots in Turkey.  The class is called Inventory Drawing (offered at School of Visual Arts). In it, students try to make quick drawings to a series of prompts, sometimes offered sequentially, sometimes two or three or four or five at once (sort of like life).

Each drawing is allotted about one minute, although the pieces may become more complex in the course of a class, as, if you are like me, you will sometimes do a few on the same page just to save time. Sometimes, Peter also will ask the class to return to a prior drawing.  This type of prolonged quick drawing would honestly be impossible in the absence of Peter’s teaching. We are all buoyed up by Peter’s enthusiasm, artistic good sense, and kindness, which come across even via zoom.

So, here are a few samples.  What is probably most interesting to me is how each came about, that is—what the mind makes of these somewhat random prompts and quick drawing times.  I’m sorry I don’t remember all the specific prompts, but the one at the top was ball in chain, pencil, firefly.  (It seems to me a great allegory for writer’s block.) The one up above was lightbulb, which I kept fairly simple, perhaps because it was at the beginning of the class.

The one directly below started with underwear. The one below that started with fried egg.  The specific prompt below that one was two words— tower and fountain, and the last one, a very weird one, combined astack of pancakes with celebration and donkey and pin cushion and roller coaster, and pussy willow! 

To me, it is so interesting to see what the mind does when it doesn’t have time to think! (A common enough condition.) I hope these are of some interest to you too. I will likely post more tomorrow.

Have a good day!