9″ x 11.5″
Charcoal on paper
I used to do a lot of life drawing back in college but have not done much of it recently. A friend of mine organizes a group and I joined them for the first time today. It was a really good experience and the two hours just flew by. This was the drawing I worked on today.
To help keep in practice. I am going to start doing a drawing or a painting study a day for 1 month. So every day I will post a new drawing. I was even thinking about auctioning them off for very affordable prices. If anyone is interested in a drawing that comes up in the next month send an e-mail to gabelueders@gmail.com.
This drawing was done on Sunday down at my father’s farm. It was warm and I sat outside on a rock looking west. I liked the way the branches hooked up at the ends. I was trying not to feel obligated to fill the entire page rather I wanted to focus on one thing that interested me. In this case it was the tree.
Later on in the day I went to work on the sweat lodge and got my Dad’s old beater farm truck stuck in the field. The ground was softer than I thought, even for 4-wheel drive.
I sometimes wonder what it is like in the mind of a baby in a world without words.
We fell asleep on the living room floor with pillows and a blanket. I got up and did this drawing of him, enjoying one of the only times he is still.
I mark my artistic career in two ways: the days before I knew of Sol Lewitt, and the days after.
Sol Lewitt, groundbreaking conceptual artist, exquisite draftsman, gifted printmaker, and sculptural wizard, died on Sunday, April 8th, 2007. He was 78.
“The idea is a machine that creates art.”
I have never wanted to be a decorator, I am far too impatient for realism, and I get self-conscious around models. Sol Lewitt’s aesthetic, the simple purity of a straight line and the supreme importance of the idea appealed to me immediately. As a designer, I am naturally drawn to grids. And while my math skills are less than stellar, I have an interest in systems and enjoy the meditative act of navigating the intricate logic of 3D space represented in two dimensions. I am also a hoarder.
“If the artist carries through his idea and makes it into visible form, then all the steps in the process are of importance. The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product. All intervening steps — scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed works, models, studies, thoughts, conversations — are of interest.”
And, though he would probably wince at the idea of beauty in his work, his work is awe-inspiringly beautiful, in the same way the double helix of DNA, or a cloudscape, or a checkerboard are.
“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.”
See Sol Lewitt:
