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The Drawing Board Blog:
"Yes. No. (Ceci n'est pas une pipe.)"
TRANSLATION: "Yes. No. (This Is Not A Pipe.)"
part I - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Artist précis.
STARTED: Dec. 19, 2013.
COMPLETED: Dec. 14, 2014.
This work of art was born in an EXTREMELY panicked moment: the juxtaposition of an imminent and VERY inflexible scheduled start time for a new work of Art AND..., NOT being ready for said moment in ANY way whatsoever. AND..., the subconscious that came to the rescue with a insanely packed concoction of symbols ALREADY on the brink of over complication, delivered into the hands of an artist who ALWAYS adds layers to the composition as the pencil travels across the paper... Super Dooper Fun Surreal ART Stuff baby. BIGtime.
Soooo. Whom would crack first???? The grateful artist with an out-of-control layout in hand? The pencil responsible for bringing control and direction into the mix? The subconscious voice trying desperately to be heard over the white noise of the EVERYday?? Would it even be remotely possible to bring this gift from the realm of the collective unconscious into physical "reality"...?
The many, many, many details of the artistic journey are down there, in the somewhat long-winded artist blog (below). BTW: there are photos so you can SKIP the boring words. Your choice. LOL. -
Artist blog: the drawing starts here...
POSTED: Jan. 13, 2014 | ART BLOG: Dec. 19, 2013
Channeling crazy energy....
Between the end of November and the middle of December... I FREAKED OUT. I had taken a small hiatus from serious surreal pencil drawing... to blow off accumulated artistic steam. It's a long story and it's all blogged out on the facebook page and in the art blog for the last pen and ink drawing. I won't bore you with a repetition. Anyway. The annual artist retreat was LOOMING and I was standing DEEP in commercial art territory. That's a HUGE space to cross quickly. The chances of actually pulling a brand new art collage off in such a short time seemed highly unlikely. I went to my box and starting pulling out photos. The photographs are the "words" to the tale I am trying to "write"... but they are words in disguise. The meaning is hidden deep in the symbolic territory of the dream language, awaiting layers of context (etc.) to come clear and "speak". It's funny. So many of these photos... I have NO CLUE why they are in the box. Really. But they are and.... years later.... after being pulled out and put right back into the box... they suddenly have a context within a new collage. I don't even try to understand. I just try to appreciate the irony. LOL. Soooo, I was pulling pictures out of the box and scanning them into the computer and pushing them around and around to see what would come up. I guess all of that freaking out and running around channeled some crazy energy baby. A collage appeared. I doubted it. It was too crazy. Too busy. Was I REALLY going to NEED to do ANOTHER pen and ink??? Ugh. I had run out of time and I was really OVER the pen and ink abstract thang (at least for THIS exact moment). BUT... I kept laughing when I looked at the new collage. That means I am on the right track. It's my sign, my personal bolt of lightening from the heavens (so to speak). The laughter is happiness at striking a true vein in the dreamscape of the collective unconscious. That's how it boils up on this end. I laugh. Sooooo. I decided to trust that I had heard a true whisper... NEXT
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POSTED: Jan. 13, 2014 | ART PICT: Jan. 01, 2014
Baroque. Crazy. Intense. Insane. Impossible?
See what I was talking about??? LOOK at ALL that STUFF in the sketch above. Whoosh. Ultra complicated baby. Anyway. I trusted enough to start laying out the pencil framework. I have to admit that at this point there were still a LOT of doubts... but the actual drawing was...finally... STARTED. Yeah. FINALLY. All of the doubts in my head... revolved around the COMPLEXITY of the collage/layout. I mean REALLY. I have NEVER had soooo many people/things featured in one artwork collage. It looks like TOO MUCH. Waaay tooo much. But anyway. Trust. Ok. Because this drawing is going to be SO BAROQUE... I decided to take my time and REALLY sketch it out TIGHT. This drawing has already laid down the law, it is NOT going to be "normal". Whatever THAT is. LOL. AND, it is NOT going to be a slow drawing from left to right (to keep the smudging to a minimum)... I get the feeling the pencils are going to be doing a LOT of hopscotching across and all around the paper. MAN. This drawing could SO EASILY become one huge mess of over complication. BUT... I could FEEL a true story beginning to emerge. I actually had to turn the computer ON during the artist retreat (a HUGE blasphemy in my book <lol>)... because... while trying to figure out what was supposed to go in the middle... the word "portcullis" kept popping into my head... THAT's not a word that I NORMALLY think. LOL. Portcullis. Ok. Sooo, I needed to play with the idea and HOW it could fit into the collage. Well. That did it. Portcullis indeed. I am BLOWN away by what THAT idea DID to this entire drawing.... NOW it all makes sense :)
You know...come to think of it.... this is the SECOND drawing with a portcullis. Wow. Blow me down baby. NEXT -
ART NOTES, PAGE: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | BLOG ARCHIVES
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INDIVIDUAL BLOG POSTS:
"Yes. No. (Ceci n'est pas une pipe.)"- Dec. 19, 2013: Channeling crazy energy....
- Jan. 01, 2014: Baroque. Crazy. Intense. Insane. Impossible?
- Jan. 05, 2014: Circling round and round and round....
- Jan. 19, 2014: Hello Kitty.
- Jan. 25, 2014: Possible, temporary, 2 week hiatus...
- Feb. 23, 2014: Re-creating "the moment"...
- Mar. 02, 2014: Not quite anal ENOUGH.
- Mar. 09, 2014: Thinking crazy strange thoughts.
- Mar. 24, 2014: Symbolic Art: following the clues...
- Mar. 30, 2014: Artistic nuts and bolts.
- Apr. 13, 2014: Words. Here. Soon(ish).
- Apr. 20, 2014: MIA. Words. Here. (Part deux.)
- Apr. 27, 2014: FINALLY... the answer?
- May 04, 2014: Working the dummy over....
- May 11, 2014: Back and forth...
- May 18, 2014: Is there any artist elbow room left?
- May 29, 2014: Neutral: a wonderful layer to add to a symbol.
- June 02, 2014: A Critical Juncture + The Symbolism Of The Portcullis.
- June 09, 2014: A Ghost In The Studio.
- Aug. 18, 2014: A different kind of word....
- Sept. 07, 2014: Homage to Dali + ...
- Sept. 14, 2014: Lots of dots. Pencil leaded dots.
- Sept. 21, 2014: The Flames, the dots and the clock.
- Oct. 20, 2014: Finagling The How.
- Oct. 28, 2014: Out of the dots come crackling lightning bolts.
- Nov. 03, 2014: Bringing the cheetah INTO her face...
- Dec. 14, 2014: "Yes. No. (Ceci n'est pas une pipe.)" is DONE.
...MORE Surreal Artwork by
Chris Eisenbraun.