ABOUT

I recently rediscovered the joy of figure drawing in sessions at the U of O art dept. I decided to try drawing with my left hand (I’m right handed of course) and it was like letting a couped up kid out for recess. My left hand sprung to life immediately when the charcoal touched the newsprint. Energy coursed through my arm like lightning and squiggly lines started flying out all over the page as if my left hand was possessed by an art demon! It seems to have a mind of it’s own, and like a prisoner, it is so grateful to be “involved” after serving as the “dumb grunt” hand, only brought out to open a jar or hold something while the “smarter” right hand got all the glory. I know it sounds crazy, talking about my left and right hands as if they are two different people, but that’s a good way to describe how it FEELS. Not long ago my yoga teacher introduced me to an alternative medical professional, who diagnosed me, explaining that why I was often fatigued was because my thoughts were traveling from the right side of my brain back to the left side and back again. No wonder I felt exhausted all the time! If my brain was a computer, that would be a lot of wasted computation time! Well this left handed thing just makes me feel so much better! I believe I may have found the cure for that malady, and it’s brought new vim and vigor to my life! Drawing is so much more fun now, and it’s like I can’t wait to leap out of bed and draw! Since then I’ve been drawing almost exclusively left handed. I’ve also discovered a form of abstract “scribbling” that really excites the heck out of me. Again, it’s like being a kid again, the thrill of just letting go and letting the colors and line burst out of the pens onto paper like a wild tornado, it’s hard to describe other than just pure exhilaration! I have a friend who is involved in “drawing as therapy”, and I would like to explore applying these drawing tools and see if they could do for others what they’ve done for me: brought back the joy of drawing into my life!

FAVORITE THING ABOUT RAW

That it's wild, messy, urban and new.

MAKES MY WORLD GO ROUND

You know!