It's Thursday about 1pm.. I just returned from my drawing class. When my teacher speaks he definitely sets off a spark in me. He speaks in such a calm, soothing, motivating manner. We had a critique today concerning 3 recent self-portraits the class was assigned to do. First we used a projector to trace a photo and then we had to look at the photo and add in the shading (life) to the drawing. The second one was a self-portrait of ourselves looking into a mirror. Last was a distorted reflection of ourselves looking into a tea pot, toaster, or whatever item we chose.
Clearly, everyone could tell which was the projected image. Why? Yes, it looked like us but it was also the least exciting. The mirror reflected ones were interesting because it was literally how we see ourselves. Like Rob (my teacher) said there is something that is happening in the brain that creates this entirely real image as opposed to the projected image. Of course, the distorted image is the most fun! The mirror image though is all psychological, it reveals so many intimate thoughts about yourself. If I had my images scanned I would share them on here, but I don't yet.
We were relating the projected image to Classic art and the mirror image to Romanticism art. There is talent in Classic art, it is undenyingly beautiful, but it is ALL beautiful, it all looks the same in a sense, there are no flaws. NOW check out some Romanticism art and that's where it gets good, it's interesting, it isn't ALL THE SAME. I know that there are many artists out there and some of us value and appreciate art in different ways. But I happen to find classic art boring and beautiful.
This can be related to all mediums of art; especially music. Okay, Cover bands, I know that there is talent in being able to play the music for starters. But where is your soul in that? Sure that musician may have had a profound influence on you, and maybe it feels great to pay homage, but where are YOU in it? Same thing with painters who try to make their work look like photographs and vice versa. That's nice, it's excellent, you can copy someone else's work and maybe you can trick people into not knowing the real from the unreal. Man, that last sentence sounded really angry, I'm not, ha.
Then we proceeded to talk about an interview with Annie Leibovitz. If you don't know who she is, google her, she is an awesome portrait photographer. During her interview she stated how she originially started off as a painting major, and then she discovered photography. Photography for her expressed things that she couldn't capture in a painting. She says how when she toured with The Rolling Stones after two or three months she really started to capture the soul of the band. It takes that for it to really mean something. You need to be around the sweat and the tears, otherwise it's just a show. Maybe some photographers are okay with it being a show, I for one am not. How are "cool" photos truly meaningful or helpful to people? It's eye candy, that's it.
To capture the soul of anything you have to work at it and spend time with it. Whether you are perfecting an original song, mastering a comedy routine, or drawing a portrait... The longer you spend with it, the more real it becomes, but you have to be willing to let go of it too... and that's a whole other Blog.
I could keep branching out and comparing this to everything in life, but that would probably be redundant for you because I know you get the idea. ;)
Go listen to live Sam Cooke. I'm so inspired right now.
