humble, common, mundane - we all have a daily relationship with paper. we cringe at the junk mail we receive, we peel it back from sticks of gum, we turn page after page of magazines. we're used to it. it occupies a space in our daily lives that is so rampant, so huge, that we don't notice it. we take its presence for granted. and as far as art substrates go, it isn't hard to acquire.
there are plenty of artists in the world that draw on backs of envelopes or crumpled receipts. and these artists, for however much flack they take before gaining some sort of critical recognition, are doing something so fundamentally human that it flies well below the radar of ART and challenges our perceptions of what art is. the fact that a scribble on a stained napkin can be validated as a fine drawing is such a wonderful thing and i enjoy the big emotional response that type of art generates.
it is this extreme level of familiarity and banality that makes work on paper seem so much more intimate than work on canvas or linen or wood. i think using common, easily acquired materials is one of the big reasons why works on paper have become so important. there's even a magazine dedicated to it: art on paper. and the enormous volume Vitamin D is a testament to the importance of drawing itself... drawing for it's own sake and in it's own right, in no way connected to painting or planning.
drawing has been received as being something much more than a preliminary action, a way to jot down ideas or work out the kinks of a different piece. it stands on its own as a completely valid art form and i love that.
drawing is an action that we've all taken part in. we doodle when bored and scribble in the dirt. our coffee mugs leave little abstract drawings ringed across the kitchen table and we find animals hidden in cloud formations. we are all drawing all the time.
the commonality of drawing paired with the banal readiness of paper is largely responsible for why i've gravitated so strongly toward exploring its potentiality for making endearing, emotional, thoughtful, honest work. it's just so immediate and seems to showcase the passage of the human hand in a more observable,tangible way than oil on canvas. oil paintings always achieve a level of refinement but a drawing, no matter how refined, always seems to carry a quality of rawness (in my opinion, anyway) and a level of humility. i'm attracted to this occuance and need to explore it.
No comments:
Post a Comment