INTRO

For about twelve years I have made drawings. For the first many of those years I had the idea that I was tapping into some sort of truth, some sort of universal language that we call drawing. I thought that I could gather the understanding of centuries of artists and with this understanding I would be able to make drawings that would be undeniable to the world. I still find these ideas to hold true for me, but it has become much more complicated. Since I have found myself in the role of "drawing instructor" I have had to come to terms with a number things. I have had to accept the fact that the foundation that I built my drawings on was one that is constructed by myself, a personal myth, if you will. I have had to accept that my personal myth is rather marginal, if not eccentric, when compared to the trends of contemporary visual expression. I have also had to try and solve the riddle of why certain ways of seeing and ways of drawing what one sees, things that have come very naturally to me, are so incomprehensible to a number of my students. I feel as though I have begun to gain some insight into these matters and into the matters of drawing in general, and with this blog I wish to trace my ongoing investigation into the world of drawing. I think a good starting point is the following quote from Nietzche:

""All nature faithfully"- But by what feint
Can nature be subdued to art's constraint?
Her smallest fragment is still infinite!
And so he paints but what he likes in it.
What does he like? He likes what he can paint!"