TITLE:Observational Drawings of Observers Drawing (As Students Work Series)
YEAR: 2015-2018
MEDIUM: Vine charcoal, graphite, gum and vinyl eraser, newsprint
DIMENSIONS: 24″ x 18″
DESCRIPTION:
“We do a lot of looking: we look through lenses, telescopes, television tubes…Our looking is perfected every day, but we see less and less.” (Frederick Franck ~ The Zen of Seeing, 1973)
Lately I’ve been watching a lot of things. Observing my students in a foundation observational drawing course that I instruct, I’m beginning to see a bit more than usual. This is what students “seeing” look like as they practice seeing; as they draw. With soft vine charcoal I’ve drawn each subject in brief sittings (~30 minutes). Subsequently digitized and animated, some of these studies have become time-based drawings that seek to capture the gaze and the slow, careful focus involved in observational drawing; as they draw they are drawn…and we watch.
