29 August 04

Rendering Dimension

We all drew as children. The question Peter Steinhart asks in The Undressed Art: Why We draw is why we stop.

Many give up because they think they aren’t good enough, or it doesn’t make any sense when there are so many other things to do. But Steinhart thinks it’s what makes us uniquely human.

The camera, and now the computer, have played their part in destroying drawing as a discipline, yet they have nothing on abstract expressionism. Generations have lost the skill of drawing.

And yet: life drawing classes and studios are filled to capacity.

Reading this book makes me ache to get back into a dusty room with twenty other people, charcoal dust swilling around, looking at a human figure and puzzling how to get it down on paper. I think I’ll try the Davis open studio this fall. If I’m no good it doesn’t matter: there’s nothing else that can get me to see as hard as that.

This post is the 500th on Feathers of Hope, eighteen months and counting.

Posted by at 07:22 PM in Design Arts | Link |
  1. Congratulations to both of you, and thank you ever so much for the inspiration. I’ve been meaning to commit to drawing as well, and this little paean was a great nudge.

    Here’s to the next 500.

    — Siona    29. August 2004, 20:22    Link
  2. Yes, congratulations for sticking at blogging – I’ve read all 500 posts (of course!). I wouldn’t mind going to art classes either – I used to love art at school but hated the deadlines of getting major works in for assessment so gave it up.

    — Jenny    29. August 2004, 20:42    Link
  3. Congratulations on the 500th post!

    — maria    30. August 2004, 08:33    Link
  4. Oh, how strange. I was looking through my Charles Reid art books, and thinking about the Open Studio, around midnight.

    Am going to go to the life drawing class offered by the Experimental college, hopefully during the Winter Quarter.

    Good luck with open studio—that is the best way to spend autumn afternoons.

    — Anita    30. August 2004, 13:11    Link

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