Why do artists draw? Is it always to scratch down a split of a second of inspiration? Or, something unusual perceived?
For the New York artist Mark O’Grady, he draws pictures to remember you. He uses the word “draw “ and not “take” or “make”, as some photos do, thus the action of drawing carries a connotation of process, of incompleteness, of continuation of a line, of beginning, of marking, of leaving behind traces of something perhaps forgotten for a moment and then rescued.
Drawing is an unfinished business, as is shown at the “Working It Out” exhibition currently on view at The Painting Center in Chelsea, Manhattan. More than 100 painters from different backgrounds have got together to show their creative process by showing their preliminary drawings of a certain painting, a certain idea, remembrance, perception or dream. It appears that the curators for the show attempt to emphasize on the artists’ urge to investigate, explore, and discover through the process of making art.
As we walked into the gallery, we found the drawings posted on the walls in a disorderly manner with push pins or tapes. The drawings were of different sizes and texture, and they were displayed in a brutally unrefined way. We felt as if we had walked into an artist’s studio, or a children’s playground.
As we finished looking at the drawings, we realized that we found different universes within each and every drawing. It was a refreshing sensation, one that portended our own creative endeavor, the discovery of our own universes.
We walked out of the exhibition, feeling that somehow, in an uncanny way, we had been remembered.
Mark O’Grady, Notes #2
Jay Zerbe, #8
Dov Talpaz, With Dad,
Catherine LeCleire – “Topography”
Zahra Nazari, Study for painting #2
Leslie Ford. Swept away 5
David Fratkin, Preliminary Image`
