Self Sketch

Self Sketch

Written in 1989 and included in the PhilWP Invitational Summer Institute I archives

by Lynne Yermanock Strieb

“Sketch” is an important word to me. Since the age of eleven I have done sketches – quick, unfinished drawings in pencil, pen, brush and ink, or charcoal. I drew in classes; I rode on the subway or El and filled drawing books with sketches of passengers. I studied art throughout high school and college.

Feeling more comfortable drawing than painting, evenings during college I went to the Graphic Sketch Club at the Fleisher Art Memorial to do croquis (rapid pen and ink drawings of models). Before I buy a dress pattern, I go through the pattern book and sketch the designs that appeal to me. I have recently begun to do finished work – wall hangings (I call them abstract paintings made of cloth). Where do I get ideas for these? I sketch constantly at meetings, as I watch television, at seminars and summer institutes, when I travel. At all times, I carry a book in which I sketch, draw, and record artifacts, patterns, designs, and ideas which appeal to me, and which I may (or may not) use in a finished work.

These quick works – works in which detail

and line are uneven and broken;

in which much is left out; in which I am

practicing or rehearsing; in which not the surface,

but the fundamental elements appear – are not trivial.

The daily entries in my journal are like my sketches. They're quickly written, often unfinished, and rarely edited. They are anecdotes, descriptions, notes, records of events, bits of emotion, interpretations, and analyses, all of which, like sketches, stand by themselves. They are also pieces which could be rewritten and changed into more finished work, if I wished.

What can I learn from my sketches (from my journal entries)? These quick works – works in which detail and line are uneven and broken; in which much is left out; in which I am practicing or rehearsing; in which not the surface, but the fundamental elements appear – are not trivial. I have saved my sketches (journal entries) and when I look through the collection, I am made aware not only of the surface rendering, but also of my focus, my points of view, my interests, my choices, my thinking, all disclosed through this work which was done over time. The collection of sketches and journals builds up layers, which constitute one major work, a work that a finished single drawing could never capture.

Lynne Yermanock Strieb retired from teaching in 2001 and is the author of Inviting Families Into the Classroom: Learning from a Life of Teaching co-published by Teachers College Press and the National Writers Project in 2010. Lynne joined the Philadelphia Writing Project in 1989 as a teacher consultant.

Lynn’s piece was originally written in 1989 and was included in PhilWP Summer Institute I archives.