#0824 Curtailed
Larger Image.
I can think “arm move” and it does. There are people who have lost or never had that ability. I have lost the ability to sketch on my screen like I used to. Temporarily, frustrating rather than a tragedy. I have also possibly lost the last few sketches – and the originals of a few more, I’ll hear tomorrow.
Firstly more about this sketch which was done with a pen on a digital pad, and then some reflections on evolution.
The sketch was also done in Paint, the simplest of all programs, it comes with every copy of Windows. Not only do I not have the haed ware, but I was in a primitive stage of life where there was still no Internet, no access to passwords or other programs. Like another realm. A different level. I mentioned in a recent post that I can’t use one of those pads. I am glad to have explored that, as I always wondered if I had gone over the top with the Tablet. No. For me anyway it is far superior with a Tablet on the screen. A superior experience, but in a way the scratches and marks in this play with the tool are ok.
That made me think how independent of our tools this all is. And also how the tools influence what we do, how dependent on tools we are. I could learn to use one of those pads, and my stuff would be a bit different. Just as early art is different.
I called this Curtailed, but if I had never used an ink enabled screen I would not think that. A worm does not feel curtailed because it has no limbs. Evolution.
Evolution of art. Yes I think it evolves. And yes I think there is a hierarchy. A hierarchy of complexity (even if the work is simpler!) It is as simple as this, and saying it again here because I think it more firmly, one thing leads to another. This applies to the story of art through the ages, to what is possible with tools, to my individual process, and to each bit of work. As novelists say, the story has a life of its own, so does a sketch even! And certainly a project like this.
And the psyche evolves. Art might be a clear manifestation of that. Great art is always cutting edge. In this time of wild growth there are many areas of newness, perhaps that is what post-modern means, the flowering of the tree of evolution.