The rhythm is gonna get you
I’ve always enjoyed drawing series of things. It’s so interesting to see variations on a theme, to explore connections between things, and to expand specifics into generalities and vice versa. I learn a lot by doing drawings of similar things, going deeper into the familiar and seeking out variation. The subject itself is fairly irrelevant; the patterns and changes are what inform.
They are interesting to look at too. The eyes like rhythm. And repetition and pattern are made more interesting by variation. This is the basis of music, the
bass line and the drum keep your feet moving, syncing up with the natural rhythm of the heart while the melody adds the variation that keeps you from zoning out.
It’s also interesting to revisit themes from your own work or that of other artists. Monet had his water lilies, haystacks, cathedrals and poplars. Mozart’s wrote variations on Haydn’s string quartets which in turn inspired Ludwig Van. Picasso’s painted dozens of variations on Velazquez’s Las Meninas, Warhol did soup cans, Dine bathrobes, Wayne Thiebaud cakes, Hirst pills, Ford westerns, and the Magnetic Fields wrote 69 Love Songs. It’s more than a shtick. It’s how you go deeper.
Life itself is a variation on a theme. The seasons repeat like movements. Each fresh day provides a canvas whose dimensions always stretch from dawn to dawn, while the clock ticks out the same number of bars each day. Despite this consistency, we have enormous freedom to play each day as we will. We can seem to trace the day before exactly, from bed to the office to lunch to the train home to the TV set to bed again. But our hand always hitches some where along the path, throwing in some minor variation. The art is in noticing these chord changes, attending to life closely enough to recognize its shifts. That’s the art of journal keeping.
I find enormous positive reinforcement in these little adjustments. They show me that what has been may not necessarily continue to be—the skies will clear, the mercury will rise. And yet I see the consistency too, so I am not as panicked by chaos. There is reassurance in the sameness and hope in the changes.
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.
Comments
Fantastic entry, Danny. Love the dildos! Made me laugh really hard!
I agree about pattern and repetition.
Melly
Posted by: Melly | March 6, 2004 10:28 AM
\^_^/ Only from the sketchpad of Danny Gregory.\^-^/
Posted by: Armand | March 6, 2004 11:14 AM
The DC Mensa group used to (maybe still does) an annual "14th Street Adult Bookstore tour" where a group would walk up and down the street, entering all of the various bookstores and commenting to each other n the selction of chocolate, lollipop, lkaarge, small, knobby, you get my drift.
My first reaction was... oh my. Even better, I can find no reference in the text to the subject of the drawings. You are a fine master of the implicit, erm...
Posted by: Vicki | March 6, 2004 12:06 PM
Haa! Chuckled out loud when I read that it's about going deeper. What an excellent use of double entendre! Must say it makes a pretty picture too!
It really gives you something to think about..how precious recording all these little details in life can be..we all see through different eyes..in different ways.
I used to have an awful feeling that time was so illusive..always slipping away. Now I cherish the passing of time because I know there are things,people,places, thoughts yet to be discovered! And all within the usual daily/weekly/monthly routines!
Posted by: Amy | March 6, 2004 12:10 PM
':-)
Posted by: Michael Nobbs | March 6, 2004 01:25 PM
If the subject matter is of no real consequence, why not salt shakers? In my opinion, your choice is best kept to yourself!
Posted by: rita | March 6, 2004 02:59 PM
Danny...First of all, I would like to say thank you for encouraging people to draw. I have always fancied myself a decent writer but a shitty artist. Lately though, I have been sketching and drawing like crazy with no thought of good or bad. Just putting pen/charcoal/pencil to paper and seeing what happens. Lots is happening. I feel like a kid again. Second, I would like to say thanks for the dildo drawings. They are wonderful. Made my day. Keep inspriring!
Posted by: Donavan Freberg | March 6, 2004 04:18 PM
Loved the drawings - thanks for being so frank yet so subtle. Salt shakers would not have done the subject justice.
Posted by: Jane | March 6, 2004 04:20 PM
i highly recommend:
http://www.goodvibes.com
the best $65 i have ever spent!
Posted by: katie | March 6, 2004 04:31 PM
most excellent. excellent drawings and very amusing. it's so true, it's just about drawing. learning to look without thinking about meaning. it was amusing too to read the reactions (comments)
Posted by: anke | March 6, 2004 06:48 PM
I came back just to read the comments! Thank you Danny!
Posted by: Melly | March 6, 2004 07:22 PM
i am smiling. really nice entry and drawings!
Posted by: mary | March 6, 2004 08:08 PM
Hee! Thanks, Danny!
Posted by: Allison | March 7, 2004 01:56 PM
Danny,
You crack me up...and make me think...~Fern
Posted by: fern | March 7, 2004 03:38 PM
hi danny, hahaha, great post to read first thing monday! i think my fave is the "nonmicrowavable" LMAO
(the salt shaker lady apparently has never enjoyed any of the above goodies. and apparently needs to. ;) )
have to add my appreciation of "going deeper" LOL
and on the serious side, as someone who struggles to find the sacred in the ordinary, i really love the way you talk about the pattern and harmony of routine and the riffs of deviation, and the beauty of each.
as always, thanks for sharing :)
-pixie
Posted by: vicki | March 8, 2004 09:55 AM
First of all, I have to say how much you've inspired me with your insights and wonderful artwork! I was just introduced to you a couple of weeks ago and it has been such a great joy.
But, to be totally frank, I found the artwork (not the insights!) to be...base. Not humorous. Offensive.
No, don't unsub me. Just wanted you to know that not everyone found your subject matter droll.
Posted by: Lee | March 8, 2004 10:05 AM
I opened up your webpage, as I do everyday, then yowza! Gotta love dildos. Makes me think of William Morris' mandate (badly paraphrased) "Keep nothing in your home that you do not believe to be beautiful and functional."
Posted by: Christine | March 8, 2004 10:23 AM
Lee:
I'm sorry you felt that way. I don't believe I positioned my drawing as humor but rather that other visitors to the site seemed to have been titillated by it and given it a meaning I hadn't intended.
It is part of an illustration I have been hired to do by Print magazine on a visit I recently made to the European sex trade show in Berlin. My work takes many forms. If some of them offend you, I apologize. I hope, if you are a regular visitor to my blog, that you understand I can't censor my work but am merely posting what I am working on.
Posted by: Danny | March 8, 2004 10:24 AM
ok man I tough you where strange but now I KNOW you are. Keep it up
Posted by: Joe | March 8, 2004 07:13 PM
Gee...I thought they WERE salt and pepper shakers!
-Lisa
Posted by: Lisa | March 9, 2004 11:32 AM
I notice nobody found your nudes two posts below offensive, and those drawings have as much to do with sex (is it the sex connection that people are offended by? What's going on here?) as the dildo drawings.
I liked them. I was surprised twice; once by what you drew, and once by what you said about what you drew.
Posted by: Ronnie | March 11, 2004 09:22 PM