Moving!

My last post about recent surgery and my hospital time on the Clinitron Bed has put my mind back to the year following the original injury 20 years ago.  A psychologist friend had warned I'd entered a strange new world with no knowledge of customs, climate or language. I'd have to find my way around.  And so I have! My first significant drawings those days dealt with the profound losses of mobility, independence and an overwhelming grief which was crippling in itself. Once pointed in the right direction though, I was off and run  .... er, rolling!  

Being a control freak, I put my mind to being the best chair pilot possible and soon found any incline a classroom, every bump a lesson.  Did you know that spinning around backward in a wheelchair can land you, as my good Irish grandmother would say, "arse over teakettle" on the floor?  Me neither!  My very good PT when starting me in my new light-weight chair, had said "Don't go anywhere." Hey, It was a "Quickie" and she hadn't said, "Don't move!

A year later, on a first time out to a friend's house party, I transferred from the car to my chair and almost instantly found l'd flipped over backward because of a small driveway depression. I waved to gasping friends on the porch.  I'd made a wonderful "in-charge" entrance!

I cannot number the times I've found my self upended on the ground either cringing in embarrassment  or more likely, howling at the hilarious situation.  Just as in ordinary life, you have to keep on "keepin' on"!  In fact, in most ways. my life in the chair has become ordinary.  I often whiz around the mall quite confidently, moving much more quickly than other shoppers, then seeing myself reflected in a shop window, think,  Wow,  I'm in a wheelchair!  I'd almost forgotten!


"Happiness can exist only in acceptance." George Orwell

"Pear & Jug"

I recently found this pair of old drawings while hunting through my studio shelves.  Here are a small stoneware jug from my collection and a red pear from the kitchen.  As is my usual practice and that of most artists I know, the two drawings were variations on a theme.  I find I learn more by doing at least two versions of each idea and many do much more!  I remember being quite happy with them when finished, but now I'm having second thoughts.  I really like the drawing of the jug on the right with its fine, clean edges, subtle color changes and soft reflections, - but now as I look at it,  that pear is a bit of a problem.

In that position it seems to be turning its back on us, almost hiding its true form. It flattens out toward the stem end, loosing some of its 3 dimensional quality while fading into the near distance.  It shares some of the jug's color, - probably warm color from the artificial light, keeping the two compatible, but  I think it needs more personality, - more "Pearness",  so I turn to the "Pear & Jug" below where the stem end is toward us.  

In this drawing our pear is crisper, more solid looking,  with more vibrant color.  It pops out away from the jug and the background paper color, -perhaps a bit too much so! This jug, if you look closely, is rendered more loosely, the color laid on more heavily, with pencil marks more evident. Because the drawings were done at different times of day, the overall color effects vary markedly. You can see the bluer daylight color bathing the left side of the first jug while the warnth of indoor lighting dominates the second.  The effect is quite different in each, - warm strength in one,  cool precision in the other.   I've decided I like them both!

As you see, there's no need to go farther than your kitchen counter for subjects worthy of your time and attention. OK, you may not have old jugs, but look around! As usual, the name of the game is observation.  Speaking of which, I have a small confession. I said the pear came from our kitchen counter. I lied!  (Again!)  It came from a shelf in the kitchen.  It's a nice wax pear, a gift from an admirer!

 " Drawing is your understanding of form."  Edgar Degas

Bed Time

Let me tell you about the Clinitron Bed!  A heavy thing with a fine glass "sand" filled mattress, - very tiny glass beads floating in warm air... and it leaks!  It leaks air under you, around you, ballooning the  sheets. It often squeaks madly against bare skin as the mattress moves gently, changing position for you, - a slow and sometimes silent "rock & roll" with added vibration!

I found myself "floating" post-surgery on just such a bed, - a hospital bed for patients with deep difficult wounds, terrible burns or surgical incisions requiring the patient to stay very still.  I was wrapped in wonderfully warm sheets, told not to move, - the bed would do it for me, they said.  It was a strange, patience building experience, - mostly flat on my back for almost five weeks!  A deep non-healing pressure ulcer, common in paraplegia, had kept me down for the better part of a year, its potentially lethal result making serious surgery necessary. (Re: Christopher Reeve)  It was "Flap-surgery" where major muscle tissue was moved to provide padding over an offending boney prominence so I might eventually sit happily without further injury.  I'm doing well now.

I loved the caregivers of Glens Falls Hospital's 4th floor surgical recovery, - wonderful people!  I have nothing but profound respect for my plastic surgeon, Dr. Jitendra Singh (a true artist with his knife!) and his right hand man, P.A. Tim Ward, another good guy!  I certainly loved the heated mattress but a real downer for this artist was the Clinitron bed's constant movement and ever-present vibration.  It was impossible to do any serious drawing!  My pencil would skitter across the paper, - all wiggly lines, incomplete marks and mistakes.  You can see one small attempt here where I tried to make positive use of those short broken marks and uneven lines.  Hey, I tried!


"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life."  Joseph Campbell

         

I'm Back!

This is my first posting in several months. The last was Sept 10,  just a few days before my latest surgery.  I chose this as my first since then because here I used my favorite drawing implement, the Prismacolor Pencil. I spent hours looking, re-looking and looking again to produce the highly realistic finish. Making an exact copy was important, - with form,  as shown by light & shade and hi-lights in particular, giving the illusion of substance. 

I set these objects in front of me, - an old stoneware bottle, a fairly old glass jar with a swivel stencil cutter standing up in it, - just barely below my eye level.  I liked the contrast between the solid glazed clay of the bottle and the transparency of the little 100 year old jar.  The reflections from the bottle's glaze, on the jar's internal and external surfaces distorted by the old glass give life to the whole piece.  I really enjoyed the demanding work and in the end must have done three or four versions.  

BTW, As I believe I've said in the past, - the glass jar is "transparent", - a much better word, in my opinion, than the current and extremely awkward, "see-through".

"In painting you must give the idea of the true by means of the false."  Edgar Degas  

Bug

Years ago when I'd been home long enough that I felt able to be a bit independent, my good wife and constant caretaker gave me this cute metal bug to keep me company while she went off on a well earned retreat. It worked!  With "Bug" by my supper dish I felt no need to party with those pesky neighborhood  Dancing Girls.  With house and home intact on her refreshed return, we'd made another great step in surviving the disaster of my "minor" spinal cord injury.   

Now I need to take a break for new surgery. I'll be out of commission for a number of weeks so here's that same little guy to hold my place here 'til I'm able to post again.  Hang in there, - I'll be back.

"To lose one's health renders science null, art inglorious, strength unavailing, wealth useless and eloquence powerless."  Herophilus

Choices

It's a rare day when the people I draw are in such sharp contrast as these. The sad old woman here on the left was nearing ninety-five and close to the end when I drew her a few years ago. The thoughtful young lady below, not quite 20 at essentially the same time, had not yet found the ultimate direction of her life.  Both sat very quietly, one looking inward at long gone times in memory, the other contemplating a future stretched years into an unknowable future.  It's a common cliche that seniors may have remorse for old actions but more likely regret things not done at all, - while the young see few problems or choices except those immediate.

In the begining and in the end you are your own mentor and motivator; you direct your own life, you do what you have to do and enjoy what you have while you can. 

The longer we live, the more we are obliged to confront the deeper meaning of what we do.   (David Toop)

To be old can be glorious if one has not unlearned how to begin. (Martin Buber)

I never feel age... If you have creative work, you don't have age or time. (Louise Nevelson)

Vacation Days

 I don't often have time to make detailed drawings like this when away from home but every once in a while the true meaning of "vacation" slips into my mind, hands me a pen and slows the clock while I record a summery view. Here's an early morning look out a third floor back window of the two hundred year old "Red Lion Inn" of western Massachusetts,  - a delightful old fashioned hotel with antique furnishings, a great New England menu and vintage village views.

The second drawing, this time with ball-point pen, is a narrow vista from my favorite vacation spot at home in up-state New York.  Here I can enjoy a beautiful summer afternoon recording the skyward view to the south. That spot is our lovely back deck, almost a tree house under a huge old maple, so that patch of sky and the leafy green bower above is the ceiling of this my "favorite room". - Another great vacation spot!


As you can see, a fine ball-point pen produces a softer mark, more like that of a  pencil than the crisp ink line of the first drawing. It's ALL good though. A slow vacation day or two minute parking lot drawing, putting time in your sketchbook everywhere you go is the best medicine for boredom and certainly the best practice for the health of your artistic life.




The quality of life is determined by its activities. (Aristotle)
Throw open your window and let the scenery of clouds and sky enter your room! (Yosa Buson) 

Twice Drawn, - Once Pregnant

 I've had but one opportunity to draw a pregnant nude.  She was this young woman  who had posed for us many times during the past few years.  This is a nice contrast.   Back in earlier posts you'll find her decidedly un-pregnant in nice poses like the one the right. 

Here I've drawn her with emphasis on the globular forms of her very pregnant body.  She is the same woman in both but along with those amazing physical changes  I've happilly recorded her usual proud and resilliant  personality.  - Lookin' good!


"Be both gardener and the rose."  (unknown)
 
"Art strives for form, and hopes for beauty."   (George Bellows)

Parking

As often is the case, here I am drawing cars in parking lots while waiting for Lorraine to do her shopping.  I may have more of these than any other sketch-book subject. Naturally the big challenge is to complete the cars before the owner moves the car, someone blocks the view with a van, or Lorraine finishes her shopping and it's time to move on.

Looking forward, someday these works will have that "old time" feel because of the "vintage" autos pictured! I love looking at the drawings and paintings of those like

Edward Hopper who gives us a sense of a very 

particular time. He did a series of watercolors done in Gloucester and Marblehead  that  easily carries us back.

I've recently been looking at some cataloged reproductions and realized that my appreciation of the works would have been enhanced by knowing the original sizes.  Scale is important!  These pieces are all approximately 5x8 inches."The man who will go down to posterity is the manwho paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him."

Looking Back

It isn't often that I have the opportunity to draw the male figure but looking at these two efforts, I should do it more often.  I know I'm more attracted to the curving lines and rounded forms of the female, - I've been working with them in one way or another for years.  Even tho' I've owned and loved dogs, I'm more at home drawing the soft shapes of cats too.  I wonder if this is a case of simplicity vs complexity, - of surface vs structure.  I've said earlier that I depend on my eyes rather than knowledge. That's a perfectly reasonable way of drawing, one that I love, but if I had a better background in human anatomy, these drawings would no doubt be more accurate.  As I work I'm looking at light reflecting from skin surfaces which are (de)formed by the muscles and bones beneath.  Back a few years when in art school working from the live model, we were required to draw the figure as if without skin, visualizing the bone & muscle below.  It's time to do that again.


Education is no substitute for pure raw talent. However, it is a good foundation on which talent may build. (david Allio)