Prelude to 2009

Welcome to the first post of 2009! Words cannot describe how glad I am to be rid of 2008. If i could find some way to somehow graphically represent the satisfaction of finally making it through that year, I am sure it would find it's way here or possibly just seep out gradually in the shadings of a pencil or the strokes of a brush.

That being said, December wasn't a complete bust productivity wise, though there were major distractions (exam, holidays, etc.), so I took the entire month off on hiatus here. And while the beginning of this year is shaping up to be just as busy, if not more insane than the last few months, I am hoping it will be a painless and productive breed of craziness. This year should prove momentous in it's capacity for change in every facet of my life, but as we all learned last year... change does not occur by itself. At the very least it takes persistence and someone to push it along.

The last few days have been mostly a reorganization and revitalization of the life and spaces around me that have also been neglected as a result of said hiatus. Tomorrow I head back to work and begin chipping away at the mountain that is waiting for me there. But there is Work to be done on my own time as well, so it seems appropriate that it should begin tomorrow as well. I have been called out by my friend Daisy and challenged to do a drawing a day for the year. In a way, the challenge stares me in the face every time I come to my own blog... "Not A Day Without A Line Drawn", it means.

Perhaps it's time to live up to my own audaciousness.

Grasping at the Infinite

Last Friday I had a day off of work and I got to sketching. This time instead of the more structured blocks, strips and rectalinearities, I got to scribbling and doodling. Soon, the wild scratches of my pen became more gestural, which then became more formal and then reverted back into chaos yet again. What seeped out of me were attempts at graphically representing the shape of the infinite, or at least they started that way...

Yesterday I picked up my copy of "A Thousand Plateaus" by Deleuze & Guattari and started reading where I left off a few weeks ago (I have been gnawing at this book all year. It's dense subject matter leaves me puzzled, bleary-eyed and tired at times, so i don't generally get very far before I put it down again, while at other times it strikes me to my core and weaves threads through my existence). Suffice it to say, the words took on a new meaning on that day, and the essay which started as a manifesto to the 'Body Without Organs', suddenly turned to the nature of shapes, form and the dichotomous relationship between expression and content.

These ideas struck a bit of a nerve with me and I began thinking of my own sketches and art in such a way, as I do seem to have two very differing realms in which I dabble; the swirling free-flowing organic forms [expression] and the carefully articulated and placed geometric forms, shapes and objects [content]. While the lines sometimes blur unintentionally, I think it is important to be aware of these strata at the inherent core of whatever we create. But awareness is the easy part; understanding is an entirely different beast.