~~~~~
I’m excited to announce the first Life Drawing class that I’m offering at Golden Drum. Well … anywhere for that matter. It feels nice to be connecting back to one of the sources of how I really developed a fine love for the human form. I’ve been drawing relatives and friends for as long as I can remember. Everyone is a model to me. Especially people who sleep on the Subway. Fair game I say. Every gesture is a lesson in form and movement. There’s no better teacher for artistic observation than the human form. Nature is always a fantastic source of inspiration but there’s something about the shell of the soul that can speak volumes by the way a smile is rendered or how the reflection on an eye can be captured on a piece of paper that can immediately create a connection. Some of my favorite creative works were birthed while doing 30 second gesture drawings. There’s something so satisfying about being totally engrossed in observing that nothing else matters or can enter into the mind other than being consumed by the desire to capture a form on paper in a matter of moments. I still remember coming out of warp drive when the model moved to the next pose and gazing for a couple seconds at the marks that were left on the page before ripping the sheet to the floor and starting the process all over again. It was such a good lesson in detachment for me. Figure drawing really took me out of the mode of creating small controlled paintings and drawings. I have to admit that I’ve been moving back to that carefully designed format but I’m looking forward to revisiting the practice that broke me out of the mold to begin with. I am looking forward to sharing this practice with others. I hope that it can help others the same way that it has helped me.

ShareThis

Slipping off into some other dimension on this one. Coming or going? I can’t exactly say. Some landscapes are suppose to be left alone. This particular one started as a sketch and then I used some colored pencil and then dissected it in Photoshop to give it some more depth. I want to get lost here for a little while. Kinda feel like I have.

ShareThis

All I can really say is that I’m consistently creating things that leave me scratching my head and I like it. In a sense I really have been here. After meditating about the piece for a little while, I really feel like this is place where I’ve been. The longer I worked on it, the more I felt this to be true. A place from my imagination perhaps, but when I was working on it I knew where everything was spatially and the sensations around me. I pictured being under one of the large leaves laying on the cool pavement while the telephone wires buzzed above. I was in the backseat of the car looking through the front window at the legs of a big yellow floating monstrosity. He seemed harmless enough. The way I see it, this place that I’ve made is real in the same way that my dreams are real. Yes, I don’t experience either with my physical body but when I’m in the act of dreaming or painting I am having the experience of being there in that moment. It’s been a great project for me. I can’t wait to go somewhere else!

ShareThis

I find myself thinking about potential a lot recently. It is rather daunting to think about at times. The infinite amount of possibilities that are there silently waiting within every moment of experience. I looked at my hand the other day and wondered what might spring forth if I was in a dream and could manifest anything instantly. Or better yet, asked the dream to decide for me. It is hard to accept at times but our main limitation is that of our imagination. We can only push our creativity depending on how willing we are to plunge into the deep space that we have yet to venture. When I’m on the subway sometimes I think of how boring it is. People trapped in a habitual loop of staring at the ground day after day afraid to share even a glance with a stranger. Someone once said that humans are not machines but whenever given the opportunity will act like one. We are creatures of habit but these are all breakable habits but first we must recognize them as such. So I invite you to come back to that place of creativity. A place of joy. A place of potential.

I think this sketch is the beginning of something I can mess around with in Photoshop. Check back soon for the next progression!

ShareThis