Power Shift Ohio: the Images

Diamine Ink Color Release

Also, Diamine has just released 10 new ink colors!

1. Midnight
2. W.E.S Kensington Blue
3. Marine
4. Delamere Green
5. Havasu Turquoise
6. Majestic Purple
7. Classic Red
8. Rustic Brown
9. Lavender
10. Hope Pink (breast cancer research)

European Companies Surpass US yet again…

So, both the Quo Vadis blog and the Rhodia blog recently announced that Clairefontaine has revised its environmental standards to an even more impressive level. One of the things that first drew me to their products was their attention to the environmental impact of paper producton. So, for example, they are one of the only companies that still produces their own paper for their products, and only using wood from PEFC certified sustainably-managed forests. They recycle water during the production process, and don’t use chlorine to bleach their paper.

Now, they’ve changed their inks from petroleum/solvent-based to water-based, using vegetable oil pigments instead of mineral ones.

Funny. I’m going to an environmental conference this weekend in Oberlin, OH. One of the things we’ll be talking about is the fact that the United States really has nothing to bring to the table when we attend the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December.

Read more about Clairfontaine’s environmental practices here.

Automatic Bodies

Do you find that when you doodle, you draw the same thing over and over?

My mother says that she vividly remembers my grandmother drawing dancing ladies absentmindedly when she would talk on the phone. Different versions of the same figure: dancing ladies.

Automatism: the short version is, there’s a great untapped resource within our own subconscious, and we can work to express it through automatic drawing or automatic writing by attempting to free ourselves from the conscious. The constraints of the “conscious” are the constraints of grammar, syntax, the rules of composition, or the censorship through moral or social judgment, etc.

One of the aforelinked websites informs me that “Automatic Drawing is a kind of yoga for artists.” (ah, intriguing).

So, sure, I don’t fully buy it. When it comes to an ideology of creativity, I’d rather look out into the world than into my own subconscious. Don’t get me wrong; I value self-understanding, but I don’t think I’m the source of all creation.

Which brings me to the subject of doodling! I posted yesterday with some snapshots of my class notes, on days when I feel like jazzing up the typeface of my title. But the vast majority of my doodles (images below) tend to be based on the female figure.

Wait. Let’s unpack that last statement.

I draw women’s bodies (?!)

I feel more than a little conflicted about this. When I put a pen to paper, what “feels natural” is to draw the female figure. But if Sociology, Women’s Studies, Gender Theory, Queer Studies, (and so on and so forth) have taught us anything, it’s that just because something “feels natural,” does not mean that it is natural. For example, how about the fact that male artists have been glorifying and objectifying women’s bodies for thousands of years? Or that the majority of nudes in an art museum will inevitably be of women, but you’ll be hard pressed to find equivalents for the male figure? or that when I open my textbook on “the nude,” most of the pages are of women? Needless to say, it seems likely that, as an artist, naked women have been pressed into my subconscious for years.

But I won’t deny that I find women beautiful, as humans and as bodies. And I produce better art when I focus on a subject that draws me in more easily. So how about the fact that most of the female figures that I draw tend to adhere to a normative standard of beauty? Sure, I go through phases of drawing “fat women,” or non-normative looking women– but in general, I draw slender figures, graceful figures, attractive poses. Some of this can be attributed to a self-image; I know my own [fairly slender] body best, so it’s easier to draw body types like my own. But a lot of it can be attributed to the images that penetrate my consciousness every day. Every sign, photograph, commercial, painting, TV show, (and so on and so forth) produces an aestheticized feminine body that is inevitably reflected on the page.

So, here’s what I’ve been drawing so far. And my challenge for the rest of the semester is to branch the fuck out.

Return of a Laptop and Aesthetic Notetaking

I’m back from my horrible computer-fail. Let’s review the pros and cons of my laptop-lessness:

Pros

• Gave me more excuses to get outside. Sunny Autumn days are unmistakably superior to blog-browsing.
• Forced me to be extra-responsible/ accountable. Having to plan ahead when I’m going to write/print my papers is a good exercise in self-discipline.
• Forced me use the public computer labs. Using public systems (from computer laps to transportation) is always healthier, socially and environmentally.

Cons

• The Apple repair fee. Enough said.
• Realizing that my school has no program or general support for students that don’t own their own computers– which is clearly representative of a certain mentality towards student wealth.
• Not being able to network via computer. I missed a Skype interview, and have been neglecting this blog!

So, to make up for the past week, here are some of my notes from this semester: