TRANSFORMATION
‘On drawing and painting trees’ (Adrian Keith Hill,1936, Pitman Books):
‘It will be found that the underlying muscular development which categorizes the trunk and limb formation of the human contour is often reproduced in tree life.’ p.69
‘on Huxley’s definition of a tree as “an animal confined in a wooden box”, a phrase which should be a continual reminder to us to observe trees as individual forms of life, and therefore worthy of the greatest respect.’ p.70
He went on to found ‘art therapy’ introducing art activities to patients with mental illness, bringing prints to hospitals for discussion on art but was against incorporating psychoanalysis. To make art and discuss it is about the person engaging with the world outside, to make art for psychoanalysis is about letting others in for scrutiny. As an artist each piece of work I present for public gaze or engagement opens me and the subject for scrutiny.
I’m interested in the transformational and experiential aspects of art practice.
Return to strategies:
Drawing the space in between
Drawing something found from observation, another from imagination, writing to connect the two to experience
Sensation drawing larger scale
Found holes in the earth beneath the trees, something dug up, something once hidden and buried had been unearthed. I guess at squirrels and nuts. Consider cultural rituals of burying objects for cleansing in the forest. The drawing strategies feel ritualistic, I write and then follow them in silence.
Notice a rule of three in drawing approaches:
three perspectives (from Japanese ink painting) – bird eye, human eye, frog eye in films i’ve made
three perspectives in process – drawing an object from observation; drawing another from imagination; text response to connect both relating to experience
three planes or platforms – light revealing movement of canopy on artist sketchbook, the drawing on the page, the soundscape of the forest; the found object, the imaginative response to it, the response through medium on paper or film.
Each work has more than three when reviewed, but three are considered when making each piece.
