I’ve been having these unexpected experiences while drawing and I thought I would share this here. I’m not sure what to make of it, but it’s been interesting to me.
I draw and paint in several venues. One is the traditional working on my own, just looking at buildings and flowers and lakes and things that interest me and trying to express the light or form or whatever.
On Wednesday nights I draw nudes along with a group of artist friends, we hire a model and work for a couple of hours. Sometimes we talk, or critique.
I also paint murals in clients’ homes, adapting images from their favorite books or cartoons. I never planned to do those when I was in art school, it’s not particularly original, but people love them and I enjoy any opportunity to move paint around on a surface. Working really large is intriguing and I’m liking it
But the thing I do that is a little mind-boggling is, I draw quick-sketch portraits at art fairs and festivals. They’re not caricatures, they’re genuine 10-minute (on average) portraits in charcoal on newsprint. I charge $10 per person. On a really good day, I earn $200-$300.
I’ll draw anybody - babes in arms, really old people, squirmy toddlers, people for whom $10 is a pittance, people for whom $10 is a significant outlay.
I draw their pets, too, if they have them with them.
Sometimes I work from photographs, adding a sibling who didn’t happen to be there that day.
Other artists don’t like to do these portraits. It’s a lot of public contact, letting people watch me work, being distracted by their comments and praise, answering questions, hearing occasional (valid) criticisms.
People don’t sit perfectly still. The breeze blows my paper around. It’s hot.
A really good artist stopped by my booth yesterday at the Farmer’s Market, a woman I know from our Wednesday group. She teaches art and she sells at galleries all around the region. My business had been dreadfully slow that morning. I asked her if my sample drawing, a vendor’s teenage son I’d sketched as we were all setting up, was poor? Or something? I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t getting more customers.
She liked my sketch just fine, and remarked that she had arranged to do these quick portraits at a local gallery, and in the 4 hours she was there, she had only 1 customer. “It’s just not worth it” was her take.
But a little while later I did have a few customers. There was the young man with Down’s Syndrome whose mother wheeled him in. He was SO loved, that manchild, in his 60’s rocker t-shirt with Elvis Hawaiian print over top. I told him he looked like The King. His mom asked if I drew “essences”, and I said - yeah, I do. I thought, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Another artist had drawn her son before but she didn’t like the way that one turned out, “It didn’t really look like him”. Mine turned out fine.
And there was the 85-yr-old Spanish-speaking grandfather I drew. Alongside his adult grandchildren. They teased each other back and forth while I sketched. They’re new to the area, we talked about local festivals coming up this summer.
Another vendor’s son stopped by, he’s so much taller now. He was a kid when I drew him a few years ago in exchange for some corn on the cob. He’s still a squirt, but he squared his shoulders in a charming way as we had an adult-to-adult conversation.
And then a woman I could swear I’ve seen around town (maybe at the grocery store?) ducked into my tent to ask if I draw from photographs. “Sometimes” I replied, because honestly sometimes they work out well and other times I can’t get enough information from a photo to draw anything but a blob. She showed me a 3" x 5" photo of a man in his 20’s with a big nose and a huge grin. “Could you draw my son?” her smile wobbled just a little, “He died last month.”
We sat and talked and she told me about her son (who was diabetic and whose blood sugar dropped unexpectedly while he was home alone), and I swear that drawing was the most “alive” of any I did yesterday.
Later I remembered the man I drew a couple of summers ago who told me he wanted the portrait for his daughter to remember him by, as he was dying. I don’t think he was exaggerating, I knew something was up with him, he had a peculiar energy. He wasn’t trying to get a freebie out of pity, either; he paid me $30 for his portrait (which did turn out REALLY well).
I think about the moms I’ve made cry when they saw their babies on paper, and the adults and children who’ve shared their life stories with me, and also the ones with an extra burden who’ve sat in my chair for a minute and talked about it – and I think the premise of art education is pure bullshit. Because the premise of art education (beyond teaching contrast and perspective and form and composition and HOW to translate 3D to 2D – all of which is good and necessary), the premise, the point, the Reason We’re All Here Today, is (according to the art establishment) to Write the Next Page in the Art History Books, Thereby Ensuring Our Immortality.
And you know what ---- I think that’s a load of crap.
People need art. Art serves people. Art connects people.
That’s reason enough to be making it.
– but you know, it’s funny, I’m not necessarily that lovely. Certainly not 24/7. I flip off people in traffic and drop cuss words in front of my kids. It’s just when a person is thrust into a certain situation, there’s no choice but to respond. I think art brings out the loveliness for all parties involved.