SIDE JOBS
Subconscious art from conferences, seminars, meetings, hearings, gatherings, and other over-the-table get-togethers.
It’s generally called doodling, and that’s what this stuff is I guess, almost all of it created while sitting at a table and listening to others talk. I find that I focus better on what is being said if I shut out all other stimuli and deal with two things: the words I am hearing in my head and the shapes coming into life on the paper in front of me.
I throw many minor doodles away but have saved these because each eventually surprised me with its subjective beauty and compact power. Most are drawn on logo bedecked note pads, awarded to participants by the organizers of political events. They have been drawn while listening to presidents, foreign ministers, generals, parliamentarians, and myriad think tankers. They evolve from the activity of listening. They are spontaneous, impulsive, irrational, unfettered, organic, and harmonic.
I have never set out to draw something. I simply let my hand start making marks and follow curiously to see where it will go. These are the results. Some took 15 minutes. Others took shape over an hour. Rarely longer. I never retouch them.
For context and reference I have begun to preserve notes that accompanied the doodles, including dates when available. After all, this was the work I was sidelighting on.
(Pictures to come.)