I started a drawing today that I couldn't finish in time to post, so I'm showing something I drew 36 years ago. I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the amazing Lynda Barry. She's had a profound effect on my understanding of, and return to, creativity. There's SO much to say about the lessons I've learned from her that I wanted to introduce her now so you will know who I'm talking about in future posts. She's brilliant in her ability to express the creative journey from childhood to adulthood, describing how most of us abandon that journey somewhere along the way when we begin to ask two questions of our art work:
"Is this good?" and, "Does this suck?"
Those two questions hold us hostage until we can't make anything at all. It doesn't appear that the four year old me had those questions in mind as she drew. Lynda notes how children make marks on a page, follow them, then create a story, while adults want to think up the story, put it on the page, then get frustrated when it doesn't come out "right". She teaches how to water ski behind an idea, allowing it to take you where it wants to go. And she calls out, "To all the kids who quit drawing...come back!"
1 comment:
Putting marks on paper and letting the story follow them... interesting concept. I wonder at what age that usually starts to go away, or whether that's an ability some people just don't have. I can remember many times as kids that we'd both be sitting at the table, you drawing away and me either not knowing what to draw or not being happy with what I was drawing (hence the lack of artwork from my youth). Perhaps that's why I became more interested in photography.
I'm really enjoying your blog, and I'm amazed at how you can create something every day... keep drawing!
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