Been participating in a new, monthly gathering of local folks who like to just draw, and so we all meet at place somewhere in town and sketch for an couple hours (look for an upcoming post with some more details on the group activities). I even set aside a specific sketchbook with some fancy Mixed Media paper to accommodate everything from pen + ink to Sharpies to wash or watercolor, fully intending to keep it straight art - no funny stuff - and damned if that only lasted about a half-dozen pages before I blew it. As usual the cartoons have spontaneously infected everything, metastasized into the routine.
Even so, the routine is just the point: establishing a personal one as far as the habit to not only pack along a sketchbook everywhere you go but to also take it out and sketch something, anything all. And then a second routine enters the picture, as more often than not it's the mundane activities that fill up almost every day that make for excellent subject matter to explore. Sure, Alaska is home to unending scenes of epic wilderness, alpine majesty, centerfold landscapes, and full of postcard species wildlife. But it's the settings right in front of you that can reveal just as much complexity and aesthetic wonder - and by settings, I mean tableware.
“Hey you some kinda artist?”
Couple days later... 6am breakfast at the diner down the street from the mechanics, while waiting for the garage to open. Never ceases to amaze me how complicated things really are when you stop and look at them long enough. Or all the little stuff that is so familiar, or unimportant to pay attention to, that you no longer see. Like the ubiquitous counter-top clutter, which is a pattern repeated at every table, at every diner in every town.
“Coffee just wasn't strong enough to defend itself.” – Waits
No comments:
Post a Comment