Expression in Discontinuity

It must be a resort.  The chairs are standing randomly on sand.  She’s elegantly but casually dressed and she’s enjoying the sunshine.

The drawing derived from this old family photo could have been more representational.  The artist/student, Alejandra Podesta, certainly has the skill to work out the anatomy and the perspective problems.  But she chooses not to go that academic route and, as a result, produces a fine, expressive drawing. The drawing seems to breathe and reflects the grace and ease of the woman in the photo: notice how “open” it is (pink circles) and how the arched chair forms repeat and create a graceful rhythm (green lines).  The discontinuity of the lines  or “openness” creates just enough ambiguity to invite us into the composition to complete the thought of each (circled) passage. We don’t need any more information.  More specificity would rob the drawing of its expressiveness, which I, for one, feel conveyed in the discontinuity of the lines and the rhythm of the arches.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com 

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://katherinehilden.wordpress.com

Read Full Post »

Sit perfectly still. Be moved.

In Indianapolis, at a sudden turn of Mass Ave, there’s a fresh new book store called Indy Reads.  I was there last week.  I was the only visitor in the book store.  Whenever I find a wonderful place I always wonder why it isn’t crowded.  I know, that’s precisely why it’s wonderful.  Anyway, there on the notices board, somebody had tacked: “Sit perfectly still.  Be moved.” (I didn’t have time to get the name of the poet, who was planning a reading of his work.)

That’s drawing in a nutshell:  Sit perfectly still. Be moved.

Back home at my kitchen table, I’m reading “A History of Private Life: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium,” Phillipe Ariès and Georges Duby, ed.   The image in the open book shows a writing woman of Pompeii. The caption says, “The grace of hesitation.”

Hesitation is part of writing and also part of drawing.  So is grace.  Sometimes, the grace of hesitation and sometimes the grace of being moved to make a sudden turn.

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

www.khilden.com

http://facefame.wordpress.com

http://katherinehilden.wordpress.com

Read Full Post »