SO this was supposed to be a post about Chicago blues, but it just turned into a drawings roundup because I'm not entirely sure what weeks half of these drawings were from! which sounds really bad but i just honestly really don't feel that connected to my drawings so sometimes I can't tell them apart! plus i made so many that i never want to make another drawing again. I actually like drawing but as a process more than like a means of getting an end product, which is why i prefer painting. I feel like with painting I get the same release/action/physical experience of making / channeling of emotions and energies, but I actually like and care about what the paintings look like, whereas with my drawings I honestly don't that much. That's why I like drawing in notebooks and on random papers, because it gives me something to do and helps me sort through my impulses, and it's discreet and convenient. I don't care for it quite as much in terms of creating a final product. It's just not as suited to abstract forms in my opinion-if you overwork it everything ends up just dark and inky, and you can't take anything away. You can scrape away and keep adding things when you're working with oil so you have more time and chances to get it right and figure out what the hell you're actually making and what it's trying to be. But I did learn a lot from making drawings, i think i like it more now than i did before this semester. I hadn't really made any abstract drawings at all prior, so now I'm thinking about if i wanted to make a series or something. maybe. not sure yet. 

BUT the above was supposed to be Chicago blues anyway; I was still mainly thinking about Victoria Spivey. I really liked the videos of her, I liked her energy. I was happy to see a Black woman included in the course. I can't entirely tell you how that translated to the drawing, although I was concerned with trying to get some middle values in the washes. I tried really hard to get subtle variations in this one, because I realized I have a tendency to overwork my washes. I think someone said that that black form in the upper right side looked like a cross and I resent that. It's not supposed to be a cross. I can't believe i made something that looked so much like a cross and didn't even catch the resemblance; now i want to go back and make it look more ambiguous because I can't have literal symbols in my work or else i'll die.  

 

I know for sure that this drawing was from John Hurt week because that black form was supposed to be the pallet on the floor. I think this is as literal as I ever got this semester, and probably as literal as I am ever going to get in my work for the rest of my life. jk i guess i can't say that. but if you want a tangible connection between the work and the song then there it is, that's the only one I'm giving you. 

I think this is "Dusty Old Dust". I got a little frenetic with my movements because I was thinking about what a dust storm must be like. 

This one was from the week with "Sally Gardens" too. Looking back on it I'm not sure what the hell this has to do with anything.