tough love



this past weekend 
i took part in Dee Donaldson's 3 day drawing workshop. 

it has taken me a while to gather myself and my thoughts since...
i'm not sure i can put words to it yet but i will give it a try: 

it was amazing, tough, exhausting and enlightening. 
i have never done anything creative or related to art harder than this. 



Dee wasn't asking for pretty drawings with nice shading.

she wanted a rawness, gut responses, she wanted us to dig deeper, to play, 
to rely on sensation rather than thoughts. 

and that was so hard... i wrestled with myself a lot of the time; 
with the conditioned parts of me who wanted to make a pretty but emotionless drawing, 
with the part of me that wanted to do it "right", 
the part of me that wanted to know what was "expected of me". 

my head and thoughts struggled to let go of what i "should" be drawing 
but here and there in the course i had little glimpses of what it is 
like to "respond from my gut", to let it come up from deep inside of me. 

the drawings i share here are the ones where i feel i dropped deeper and trusted that 
i could respond... such an incredible, fleeting feeling. 


i feel that these three days have rocked my arting world 
and will bring many changes to my practice. 

i feel the need to go inward,  to dig deep to hopefully discover what my creative voice really, really
looks like. 


i feel as if i'm standing at a doorway not sure of what is coming just yet. 


5 comments:

  1. Was so looking forward to see what unfolded of your three day workshop!!!!! And..... W o z e r
    Breathtaking Anne. Bravo.
    Moi Je n'ose pas y aller au life drawing class yet!!!

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  2. Very brave of you Anne to have done that workshop! I'm attracted to 'rawness' and am also a minimalist in many ways, maybe that's why I totally love the second last image - if I had to pick a favourite that is. Of course I don't have to do that and I think all of them have something great but I totally love the two more minimalist ones.

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  3. Wow Anne those are completely amazing and not because they are pretty or accurate but because of the rawness and realness of you and the moment and the emotions they convey....such powerful beautiful drawings. I am amazed and I bow down to you and your journey. Well done!

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  4. Wow Anne those are completely amazing and not because they are pretty or accurate but because of the rawness and realness of you and the moment and the emotions they convey....such powerful beautiful drawings. I am amazed and I bow down to you and your journey. Well done!

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  5. deeply astounding work my friend - I love how you are doing so deep and so personal and wow - I love your outcome. Deeply moving.

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