Rembrandt Resource

http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/ An excellent collection of image and word, used by Heidi Jensen at Clemson in teaching self-portraiture. Any other good self-portrait resources in the mix?

Of Bodies in Motion

Yesterday was art-magical in Columbia, SC. Not only was it 68 degrees and sunny (thank you, latitude!), but an inspired collaboration occurred between dancers and draw-ers, yielding sparky insights and open declarations of mutual love.

On the dance side, high school dance students and their teachers joined up with USC dance students and professors to learn a 3-minute etude that the HS folks will take back to their schools to perform and teach to other students. On the drawing side, three of my students and I spent three hours recording, through drawn gestural line, this experience of dancers learning the etude. What emerged were drawn signatures of danced phrases - 10 - 20 body positions conspiring into single figures.







The linkage between drawing and dance is in many ways easy and obvious - one makes a physical move that conveys direction, speed, intensity, pressure, duration and space. But it was truly exciting to have dancers look at abstracted marks on the page and recognize themselves in them; as well, for those drawing to feel like we were dancing as we moved and left material traces of vision. The immediacy and intimacy of the experience was inspiring (and thus highly recommended - go draw dancers! Hurry!!!).

Xenakis on AIR

Curators Carey Lovelace and Sharon Kanach speak to their exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect and Visionary, running at the Drawing Center until April 8.

AIR's David Weinstein speaks with Lovelace and Kanach here.

And morning synesthesia yields a very happy combination - a video of a Xenakis percussion piece - listen/watch/envision a drawing... delicious.

Sketchbook Project Exhibition Tour

The Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project is now on tour for 2010, giving viewers the chance to ogle and handle hundreds of sketchbooks crafted by artists from around the world. The collection will be traveling to major cities in the US before finding repose in its Brooklyn home.

Call for Papers : Drawing and Technology

Tracey has announced their 2010 Drawing Research Topic - Drawing and Technology, and is now accepting papers for review and publication.

From their website: "Tracey is a peer reviewed electronic journal dedicated to drawing and contemporary issues. It is varied and diverse with a fast growing readership of academics, students and practitioners representing a wide range of drawing interests including fine art, architectural design, graphics, product design and visual communication, ideally any activity in which drawing is essential."

The Tracey website is a great collection of writing on a wide range of research topics, from the syntax of mark, to the state of drawing education, to mapping and memory. The questions raised are vital, and the coverage thoughtful.