Drawings: Body & Soul

Encounter

I was clueless at first about what to create for a show entitled, "Body and Soul." Yet in one fell swoop I made a cluster of thumbnails that were the impetus for many finished pencil, colored pencil and watercolor drawings.

Meditation

They have in common the human body, male, female, naked or clothed. They are usually alone, except for the one above where two lone people meet in a windy field.












In each, the person has something psychological or emotional to deal with, which I see as the work of the soul.

The Unknown

Human beings have at their core what George Gurdjieff called "The Three Centers:" the intellectual center, the emotional center and the physical center.

















The "Body & Soul" theme suggests to me the dilemmas, the quandaries, the challenges of evolving a soul, something Gurdjieff said, was difficult, but not impossible to accomplish if you work on yourself. In these drawings I try to express these ideas.

Perceptive Soul

Technique first: I started with graphite. I used hard and soft pencils to create tones and textures. The ones on smooth bristol paper have a crisp line, while the ones on a softer paper have a vague, fuzzy look to the line and shading.

The Searcher

This one I call "Searcher." While others have seen other meanings (ie. Kali the goddess of destruction), I intended this male figure to be trying to shine lights to guide his way, determinedly and urgently looking for answers.

Walking Meditation

This is a searcher as well. I call it "Walking Meditation." To me she is aware and unaware at the same time. Perhaps the shapes surrounding her are her meditation, made visual.

Paperweights

Is she alive; is she an amputee?


The statue as I see it, is a stand-in for a real person, but a person who lacks something. What they lack may be "will" or "intention" or something else. But whatever it is, it is keeping her from becoming a fully developed soul.

Soul Mates

And now more cheerful, I hope, interpretations of body and soul. This is the first of the "Soul Mates" drawings, drawn in the month of Valentine's Day and shown at the Pop-Up Gallery in Princeton in the week before the holiday.

Soul Mates: Sunset

Two more were color variations and twice as big as the first.

Soul Mates: Spring

Someone compared them to the artist Magritte's kissing couple, but really, it's an emotional resemblance only. They share a surrealistic attitude. I think I am at heart a surrealist, if I were to venture to label my artistic SOUL.










More drawings are on the way...