Brevity is such a wonderful idea. Irony - a close cousin.
I suffered 45 minutes of being presented at last week. Unable to break the damned flow of the presenters schtick. Although I'm supposed to be good at it I couldn't create a dialog with the 'presenter'. It nearly killed me. It was unpleasant. A relentless, rehearsed tirade and worse - done through a broad smile. Meanwhile I sat fuming - incapable of altering the persistent thrust of the attack. Ironic when the topic was an approach to creating powerful engagement with ones audience. Empathy. It was genuinely an assault on my senses. Maybe I was caught on a bad year. I thought I should draw how I felt.
The news is incredible right now. That’s how I felt.
The dirty little secrets of power and politics - the unravelling of media control on our lives. The diabolical (and extreme) statement in Norway. The death of the Euro. FIFA! The depravity and waste of Amy Winehouse. For me it is a visual cacophony. I have images of Lisbet Salander and dragon tattoos in my head. The work and writing of Andrzej Klimowski the only thing capable of lifting me out of my mood. My mind was on fire after reading him - making me want to shout out loud with inspired representations.
How can I put it? I want to be brief.
What should our response be? Well, on the media story "Don't write crap!". That would seem to sum it all up. Along with "Surprised about Murdoch? Really? Was it really news that our politicians are so corrupted?" On Norway. "Is there a more wicked problem than competing religious ideologies? On FIFA - "Smoking Gun?" On the collapse of Europe? - look at what actually goes on in Bruxelles in our name! And on Amy - well "RIP" Amy - we will all miss you.
Powerful engagement with one's audience or cynical exploitation of the senses? I guess I am overly sensitive to having my senses abused. There is no subtlety to that and it pains me because I draw for a living. I need empathy and brevity to get it done.
What would Andrzej draw to sum this all up?
AK - "Visualisation of intangible ideas or thoughts is a collage of notions. Clashed together from memories, suggestions and fragments of the mind. Found, archival material, springing a visual surprise on the viewer and encouraging him or her to intellectually or emotionally process the effect and arrive at a possible interpretation."
JC - I think he would find optimism and agony in some kind of embrace. The bittersweet affair of paradox. It may have a dash of eroticism - a doorway to oblivion but as the ultimate illustrator he could not fail to catch your breath with sadness woven into graphic truth.
AK - "The immediacy of drawing is what characterises good designs and illustrations. They give the impression that something is being acted out before your eyes - the energy of the drawing process still evident. I see the illustrator as a transmitter, one that receives messages and transforms them into images."
JC - As an illustrator I am reeling from the last few weeks. All my senses have been assaulted and i'm awash with adrenaline. I have long loathed the plain truth of societies sickness and tried to put thoughts down just in my own vain attempt at reasoning it all. I want to draw my own personal Guernica for the 21st Century but I know I won't have the time. Nor would they give me the facade of the Houses Of Parliament as my ideal canvas. Facade is a funny word.
"Drawing is perhaps the most immediate medium through which an idea can be articulated. Illustration takes drawing into the narrative realm."
JC – I found out that I cannot draw without telling some truth or other. Some story. It is not possible for me to put pen to paper without a journey or conclusion of some sort. This drawing below took me 8 months. It was not a creation of brevity. It is 4 feet by 3 feet and done in a 0.4mm Rotring pen. Remember them?
AK - "The time within which an illustrator is given to respond to a message or subject is short. It's dramatically referred to as a deadline. Yet the speedy response to interpreting a subject is part of the quality and value of a good illustration. It should look spontaneous, fresh and vital. This is where its vibrancy and intelligence lies. And this, perhaps, is what the audience does not see nor fully appreciate.
JC – It works when there is pressure. To be told I couldn't draw people was a day I will never forget. I actually don't go in for drawing 'people' that much. I prefer surreality. That didn't mean I could forget the day I put pen to paper to prove them wrong though either. That keeps me looking for things that I can't do.
AK - "They may think that the illustrators dexterity is a pre-ordained talent. This is a misunderstanding. Spontaneity, dexterity and intelligence come with practice, just like the musician continually playing and practicing on his instrument. The musician also needs a good composer and an illustrator's art can only flourish when there is an inbtelligent and visionary client."
JC – Now I do what I do. I like the tune it plays. I enjoy the sound of pen on paper. When the paper works. I create drawings a hundred times bigger than the one above in a day. That's a fresh kind of brevity. But only when the pens work! http://johncaswell.posterous.com/apple-please-make-pens I wouldn't be able to do it at all if people didn't listen and watch what was going on. That’s empathy.
No comments:
Post a Comment