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EXERCISE 01: ORIENTATION / MATERIAL ATTENTION
Spiraling
(An Exercise in Repetition + Modulation)
For this assignment, I decided to draw spirals because they are a shape I consistently return to in my practice. I gave myself the constraint of using the same materials (crayons on newsprint) and creating the same shapes (spirals) but did not limit myself in terms of time. I got sort of sick of spirals pretty quickly, so I had to keep coming up with new ways to make the process interesting for myself. To do this, I employed a variety of different colors, line weight, and values. I also experimented with using the spirals to create other forms and altered my usual process by drawing with my left hand and doing blind contour drawings. I find it interesting how different each drawing came out, while still feeling like pieces of a larger narrative. This exercise emphasized for me how strongly I feel called to create natural, organic shapes rather than geometric ones. It also shows how I love working with color.
My process photos for this project are reflective of the fact that I like to surround myself with inspiration. This is something that I already knew about myself. Seeing it reflected here really just hammers home that I should work on making my studio space feel more like mine. I would definitely say that my drawings were influenced by my immediate surroundings, sometimes very directly. That said, I really did not plan things out very much. I really tried to let go and work based on intuition rather than logic. I made marks that felt right, listened to music that felt appropriate, and watched what I felt like watching. As someone who's generally very plan-driven, this type of working feels freeing to me and I think that is something I should continue to cultivate.
This is my desk! I like this picture because it feels like a little glimpse into mind and process. It's crowded, colorful, and creative, which is a pretty good description of what's going on in my head a lot of the time.
EXERCISE 02: DIONYSIAN / APOLLONIAN
I started with the "pure Dionysian" process of making, which manifested itself in the form of sculpture. The best way I can think of to explain this process is that I simply followed instinct and what I felt like doing in the moment. I wanted to play with wire, so that's what I did. As I bent the wire, flower shapes started to emerge, and I just kind of went with it. I came out of my Dionysian session with a little garden.
The Apollonian process was a lot less fun for me. I gave myself the constraints of drawing within boxes and ended up feeling 'boxed in' emotionally too. I drew two still life scenes of my studio in colored pencil. It was really hard for me to get into the zone without music, which also did not help. Suffice to say, I was pretty relieved to be done when I finished filling those two boxes.
I did the Apollonian drawings and still had a lot of space on that sketchbook page. Empty, unfilled space in my sketchbook bothers me, so I knew I wanted to put something else there. What I needed help with was deciding what exactly to draw. Mishi suggested that I draw Nick, so I did. It was Dionysian in the sense that I was not drawing within boxes, and I used light blue because it felt right. There were still constraints, though, for the Apollonian. I limited myself to using one colored pencil and fitting my sketches in the space available. Making while combining the Apollonian and Dionysian was closer to my usual process, especially for drawing. It was interesting to see the two extremes, but I am thankful to be combining them again.
Left: sketchbook drawings for the Apollonian and combined exercises
Right: Dionysian wire flowers as part of my wider workspace (which I think of as a kind of garden or apothecary)
EXERCISE 03: EXPLORING SYMBOLS
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