Getting out of your own way
Today I was thinking about "mark making". I was thinking about the painter Steve Huston
and how much I love his work. His marks are the marks of a person who is drawing the anatomy and discovering the form while he paints. There is an immediacy about his marks- all while having complete control at the same time. I also saw a sculpture by David Simon at the foundry that was absolutely beautiful to me. He made every little shape within the body become a little egg shape- after Michelangelo. It worked for him. Beautiful. But that doesn't mean I have to run to my work and mimic that very same approach. It's good if I am able to dissect and understand what he is doing.
I think about technique and how, really, one shouldn't even think of technique. The work should be honest and true. How one achieves that is more personality than it is technique. It just happens. It's part of what you are training your hand to do and your eye to see.
Some days, I feel that I have connected; and when that happens all the chatter in my head stops, the world quiets down, and all I am thinking about is "oh, that is there... and that form does that... and that form does that... all the time that I am making the marks with my sculpture tool, and those marks are completely my own-because I'm not concentrating on them, I'm thinking of the body instead. That really is drawing, isn't it. So, maybe I should think on that more often. Drawing the form- even if it's with clay and a sculpture tool.
Think on being purposeful. I think that might be the key. Be purposeful and be present.
and how much I love his work. His marks are the marks of a person who is drawing the anatomy and discovering the form while he paints. There is an immediacy about his marks- all while having complete control at the same time. I also saw a sculpture by David Simon at the foundry that was absolutely beautiful to me. He made every little shape within the body become a little egg shape- after Michelangelo. It worked for him. Beautiful. But that doesn't mean I have to run to my work and mimic that very same approach. It's good if I am able to dissect and understand what he is doing.
I think about technique and how, really, one shouldn't even think of technique. The work should be honest and true. How one achieves that is more personality than it is technique. It just happens. It's part of what you are training your hand to do and your eye to see.
Some days, I feel that I have connected; and when that happens all the chatter in my head stops, the world quiets down, and all I am thinking about is "oh, that is there... and that form does that... and that form does that... all the time that I am making the marks with my sculpture tool, and those marks are completely my own-because I'm not concentrating on them, I'm thinking of the body instead. That really is drawing, isn't it. So, maybe I should think on that more often. Drawing the form- even if it's with clay and a sculpture tool.
Think on being purposeful. I think that might be the key. Be purposeful and be present.
