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.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 