High Art or Low?

What You'll Need:

Several rectangular drawing surfaces, all the same size and orientation, size and material of your choosing.

Drawing tools of your choosing.

What You'll Do:

Execute two (or more) drawings simultaneously, as follows:

1)    Begin each drawing by introducing linear movements or shapes in both the top and bottom areas of the space. You can do this fairly automatically; any lines or shapes will do (they will simply serve as a starting place for the drawing).

2)    Step back and take in your work for a moment. Feel it. Sense the energies in each of the elements. Notice relationships that are forming between the elements. Pay special attention to the relationships between the energies present near the top of the drawing and those near the bottom of the drawing. Notice how they "speak" to one another.

3)    As soon as you have an urge to respond in some way — do it. It doesn't matter so much what you do, as long as you respond from the gut. You might add something new, change something by making it darker or richer in color, de-emphasize something by partially erasing or veiling with paint, or take something out completely.

4)    Using your intuitive intelligence, sense when one of the drawings might be developed so that its tensions are dominantly up high in the space, and take it that way until a satisfying resolution is arrived at.

5)    Take another one of the drawings and develop it so that most of the visual forces are concentrated near the bottom of the drawing. Develop that one to a satisfying resolution as well.

6)    Compare the two drawings, and note what your emotional response is to each.

7)    As always, share your drawings in the community, and comment on a fellow artist's work each time you add one of your own. Let us know if this is your first upload — we love to welcome new members into the group!