drawing on the outside

so we have just de-installed our exhibition that marked the end of this phase of ‘drawing on the outside’.

but i should probably stick to the expected chronology of a blog, and go back to the session that i missed. the lovely rebecca kinge, of the ‘southampton collective’ – one of our funders – stepped in when i couldn’t make it. by all accounts it was a really good session, based next to the water, and highly productive and convivial. i felt a definite pang of envy upon hearing this. it is funny how possessive we get of our initiatives. especially when the first ‘text drawing’ emerges from a meet-up – thanks dave

we followed this with 2 days in god’s house tower with a rotating selection of the men who are a regular part of the project installing our exhibition. when we laid all the work out on the floor to get a sense of what we had, it was quite breath-taking – each drawing evoking a time and a place and a feeling. some from earlier small gatherings where even the self-doubt and overwhelm of wondering whether an idea did in fact have legs did not detract from the making and the exploration and the fun; others from busy chatty sessions where new processes and approaches had been enthusiastically embraced.

anyone who knows me will agree that i can be a bit of a control freak, although i work hard to overcome this and remain open to other ideas. co-curating an exhibition is one of those times where i have to actively open my mind and let the thoughts of others percolate to develop best outcomes – and i think we smashed it! jo’s idea to hang the long banner against the stone wall of the building was a triumph, and hanging the drawings with masking tape instead of the intended magnets kept the hang true to the ‘sharing the project’ vibe that we were going for (great thinking katie). as a record of ‘doto’, we had a small exhibition on the mezzanine of drawings i had done of the men, self-portraits they had made, and some of the drawings they had done of each other. these were interspersed with quotes from participants about their experiences of the sessions, and their hopes for the future of the group.

as part of the show, we supplied drawing materials for visitors to draw whilst they were there, and on the saturday afternoon, we held a drop in workshop for anyone who would like to hang out with us – we had a beautiful afternoon making small concertina books filled with direct printing from wild flowers. kirk worked on his pyrography collaboration with the bark beetles, and several of his ‘man gang’ pals came along – some of whom even became unexpectedly (in their minds) involved in the drawing workshop.

so where does these leave us? we are definitely keen to continue with the sessions, and we have some budget remaining to do so this summer as we work towards creating some art works that will live in the public realm at swaythling station. So we are back to looking for funding to continue … and develop … katie and i have big thoughts about a 2 year continuation project expanding the offer to other groups – but you will have to wait for further details of that.

meeting in a car park on a warm afternoon to spend 3 hours drawing – what could be better? we grouped, collected seats and materials from the van and then we wandered, soon identifying a fallen tree that would provide us with seats and plenty of rubbing options.

last week we met in god’s house tower and made some really beautiful cyanotypes (20 mins exposure on a cloudy day) working in similar ways in quite a directed way, so this week, the plan was more fluid and open.

following on from the unspoken policy to not photograph participants, i suggested that we somehow made self-portraits so that we might be represented in the upcoming show. I think it is fair to say that this was not pounced upon as an idea – katie and i made versions of ourselves, as did one other person, but otherwise, the engagement was personal and free, rather than a response to the suggestion.

after a somewhat unsuccessful rendering of myself with a dandelion clock for a head (the wind soon blew (away) my mind) i decided to rub some tree bark and some leaves and use the results to collage portraits of the 4 men who attended today’s session. this is a new way for me to make, and i enjoyed the outcomes as a quiet reminder of a focussed and almost meditative afternoon.

at one point we noticed that katie was ripping tree bark from a large fallen log – on closer inspection, she was exposing some amazing drawings made in the wood underneath by bark beetles. this was the beginnings of a dastardly plan – once we had packed up at the end of the afternoon, 4 of us carried said enormous heavy log to the van – we are borrowing it to have it in the exhibition.

as an additional ‘aside’ reflection, i want to talk about organisation and planning. i am extremely privileged to be working alongside katie daley-yates of host productions on this project. this means that she is doing the vast majority of the unbelievable amount of ‘leg-work’ that projects such as these require, and i mostly get to swan in and do the arting. but what cannot be accounted for is the impingement of the multi-project nature of a freelance artist’s work on even the best laid plans. 2 things have highlighted this for me in the last 24 hours. one was the ‘dave debacle’. i had encouraged a good friend of mine to come along yesterday. he had the time and place for meeting and we were in comms on messenger until he left his house. due to the last several weeks of extreme multi-tasking, i had never made a concrete plan about where we were going to base ourselves in the park … the upshot being that me sending my pal a google map pin of where we were (they were running late), i was unaware that he did not have a smart phone so did not receive it. as a result, he didn’t find us in the park and therefore missed the session. i am so gutted about this and realise that better planning on my part – planning that i just did not have the time/head space to do – could have prevented it. the second thing is that i have just realised that i have double booked myself for the next DOTO session meaning that all the flyers and posters detail a time that i cannot now do. we can contact our regulars but what if someone has finally decided to come, or just saw a poster and resolves to come along? again, i realise this is my error – the other commitment is one i cannot possibly change, so DOTO has to bear the brunt of this mistake. there is no excuse for this, but i can think of so many reasons, primarily based around the multi-hat wearing that i do in order to keep afloat, and the impact of this on finer details.

often, our sessions are super chatty, with drawing as a side order. we have touched on wide-ranging topics over the last several months: a great deal of verbal government bashing, tales of travels and other life experiences, some light-weight frivolity, and occasionally some conversations go places from where katie and i rapidly steer us away.

this week was different. this week, we connected and worked alongside each other in a state of what catherine price would call ‘true fun’ (ted talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_price_3_elements_of_true_fun_and_how_to_have_more_of_it/comments ) there was barely any chat: instead, the satisfied quiet of 6 people being playful, connected and experiencing the immersive state of flow.

as it has been voiced lately that our drawers like to be given direction, we organised print-making this week. in the spirit of developing my own practice, and being no expert, it was  an opportunity for me to be playful with a new medium. i also knew that katie has a soft spot for printing. we borrowed some kit, bought some ink and went for it.

of the 4 men attending, 2 had had a go at print-making before, and 2 had not. one decided to finish the charcoal drawing of the church that he started last week. but i watched him … he did finish the drawing, but curiosity got the better of him and soon he, too, found himself immersed in the printing process.

at the start of every workshop i facilitate, be it ‘knit the walls’, a session for art students, or a drop-in public one, the butterflies are active. for me, the primary desire is to provide a space for discovery: about the medium, about the topic, about the self, about the person next to you …. i have satisfied my own brief if you walk away feeling that something has shifted. this week, i felt that we moved into a new realm as a group – one where discovery and the thrill of unveiling a new image connected us anew.