It's been a while since I've updated this blog, but my excuse is that I've been traveling and don't have a smart phone, etc. etc. The journal pages above are from a day that I spent at the Museum of Modern Art with my son, visiting the spectacular German Expressionists show that is currently there. What I love about taking my journal to a museum is that it slows me way down and lets me enter into relationship with a few pieces of work in a way I would not be able to do otherwise. In this piece I wasn't going for careful drawing; I wanted, rather, to find the general feeling of the two shows we saw that day (as well as the lovely but ridiculously expensive snack we had in the cafe). On the left, Belgium artist Francis Alys, and on the right, the snack and the German Expressionists.
Below are two pages that I did on another day while walking around the garment district in New York on a sketch crawl with some friends. We were encountering rejection everywhere we went: one store manager told us that if we drew in his place he would get in trouble with OSHA; another place told us we could draw but we would have to pay. We settled on drawing from the windows at a couple of places. Then we found a great manequin shop whose manager not only allowed us to draw but consented to sell me a lovely manequin hand, which shall be featured in my next Piece Works blog update (www.weRpiecework.blogspot.com).
On another day I went to the Brooklyn Museum with my sketch-crawling friends and visited the African section, one of my favorites.
I greatly enjoy standing for a long time drawing the African
nkisi (power figures) whenever I can. In these drawings I wasn't thinking about outcome, but just losing myself in the details, puzzling out how things fitted together, studying the forms. Drawing is the best way I've found to do these things. I have very tolerant and patient friends and family, but if I'm the only one in the group who is drawing, I just arrange to meet up with the others later. The greatest fun is when others in the group are also drawing, but being the only one drawing doesn't need to be an impediment to taking your time to really, really see the pieces you love.
Love these drawings and that book. It was fun seeing you.
ReplyDeleteGreat seeing these pages - which were "in process" when we visited with you twice, not once, on your trip to NYC.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are the best to go sketching with!
ReplyDeleteMelly and I just posted our pages with links to you. We of course can't wait for your next visit to NYC!!
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting post. I love these pages - especially the nkisi
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a large woodcut these days that has a tiny nkisi in it. When I started the woodcut series (about religious syncretism in the New Orleans neighborhood in which I grew up) my old museum journals played a huge part in developing the imagery as well as the concept. As my friend Benedicte says, my muse lives in my journal.
ReplyDeletelooks and sounds like a lovely trip to the museum with friends and a sketchbook. perf!
ReplyDeleteGwen, so delightful to see your work! It has been some time since we have seen each other- I attended WWC in the early nineties, married Tim Wells, and had a baby Jonas while there. Now our boy Jonas is 18 and we are putting him on a plane to India in June after a weekend in NYC. He is an artist deep in his cells and I will use your slowpoke in a museum idea with him! Jonas has deffered enrollment @ WWC for a year to travel, hopefully he will meet you again upon his return!
ReplyDeleteHi Susan! What fun to see you and Tim and Baby Jonas on fb! How can that baby already be grown up????
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