So I'm back in school and am taking a Drawing class.
It's so awesome that there are some days I can't stop smiling the whole time and I worry what the other tragic art students think of me. I can't help it.
First we did contour drawings of fruit, then we did a shoe (I did my Ugg boot from my right foot since I forgot to bring a shoe that day), then we did a complicated still life. Our next project was to pick three objects and draw them. Then make stencils of the drawings. Then put the stencils together in a pattern that moved across the page.
The Short Story is, here's my drawing:
The Long Story is this (no need to read if the Short Story was enough. I'm way too into metaphors):
My sister-in-law Amber lives overseas.
There is always more to Amber than you see or think or analyze. Seriously, she's already thought what you are thinking and is kindly, non-judgmentally, waiting for you to join her.
She studies everything that comes near her, whether it's breathing or not.
She is constantly teaching. Sometimes with words.
She travels to India a good bit and brings back jewelry and clothes that have meaning.
I try to wear a piece of jewelry everyday that she has passed along.
In my drawing assignment, I chose 2 earrings and a necklace that Amber gave me.
I arranged them into a strange labyrinth.
The goal was to have the positive space (the space the actual jewelry occupied) outline the path of the labyrinth so the negative space (the empty space between the jewelry) was the path you took in moving into and out of the labyrinth.
I drew and arranged and flubbed and erased and inked it in and tried to make sense of it all.
So I took a picture of it and printed out 2 copies, 8"x11".
On one I colored in the positive space with a sharpie. On the other I blacked in the negative space.
Here's where I get metaphorical.
You can't get out of the labyrinth if you follow the negative space. You are trapped in the loops every time.
But if you follow the actual jewelry, the positive space, it will lead you all over the page, in continual loops and curves, and deliver you safely to where you began. And you will be different.
Someone in Drawing II might have seen this coming, but I didn't down here in Drawing I and I am grateful for the lesson.
Take the Positive Space, y'all. It will wind you around, love on you a little bit, and then spit you out where you began...just a little different.
Praises be.
5 comments:
I LOVE the long story!
This is truly beautiful. You a such a gifted artist! I love the metaphors...keep them coming
Your husband clearly has affected my thinking. Before reading the story, all I could see was "bike chain." (Hope he survices the century today by the way!).-JM
Thank you Terri and Kacy! John - it totally looks like a bike chain! I didn't even notice it! He survived - he's sore but doing well. I think some of the hills almost did him in on this one.
oh my sweet mollie, you have brought tears to my eyes and made my heart all warm & soft. this is a beautiful and insightful piece...so meaningful and so like YOU. i love that you are exploring your gifted creative side more and more...the sacred way you thread together all the different fabrics of our lives, our stories, manifests a very moving & inspirational tapestry...i love you. cant wait to hug you soon. xx
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