User:Chen Junyu/Graduation Project Seminar/ project proposal/3rd

what is my thesis?（ Outline )

over the past years I have been trying to clarify my work and find the topic in my work.

1）What is the process of drawing and what is drawing that I think it is meaningful for me.

2) Where is my motivation and inspiration from

3) How can I improve the process of drawing physically and conceptually

Introduction

The earliest scene I can remember till now about drawing is when I was at the age of four or five. There was a national children drawing competition on during that time, so the teacher asked me to participate. The way she guided me was, she made a picture first, a pink pig jumped into deep sea, then she displayed the image on the wall and asked me to draw one as what she did. Then I got a honorable mention and a hard cover book included all prized works by sending 50rmb to the sponsor.

This story has confused me for a long term, it keeps recalling questions as " What is drawing? What does a valued drawing should be? and Why do I need to draw if the scene is already there? ".

This thesis is looking for answers, of course there is not the "correct only one", there should be countless aspects to think about it. However, by going through these questions, I try to clarify my thoughts about drawing and summarize them for a full stop of the story.

Chapter I. The Process

When I am doing pencil sketches, the shadow lines attracted me deeply. Imagine the shadow lines in Ingres sketches, those lines sometimes constitute the grey area, or hided in the drape of clothes or skin, and grows from the drape becoming the edge between brightness and darkness. If we look at those lines carefully, we can see those lines start with thickness and end up with thinness. The contrast of the thickness and thinness needs to be dealed with carefully, it impacts the texture of work essentially. Each line, point, is the basic and important element to constitute the final work. When we starts transferring the scene -- either in our eyes or in our mind-- to paper, each movement we make for a line or a point, is becoming an independent "work" itself which is depicting a certain part of the reality.

The movement of making lines onto paper, is not a single-track activity, it is interactive. The roughness of paper, sound generated by the friction between paper and pen point, and the continuing change done by the lines which reflects to whole drawing , somehow triggers us to make the next step and influence us on decision making. And this "interactive movement" has an even stronger expression with ink painting. The feature of ink painting is, the skilled usage to material and tools is the fundamental standard to judge a work or a painter. I am not saying the material and tools for ink painting has more difficulties to be expertly mastered, it is fundamental because the way how to control it and the connections between each controlling stages : 1) The material is "soft". Even rice paper which has the best quality can be stored for thousands years, when it encounters with water, it suddenly becomes fragile. And "being fragile" is a necessary step to achieve a work. This characteristic shows most in landscape painting, which is particular strict to the shades and moisture of the ink. Brush is soft. For the very traditional way to make ink painting, teachers usually emphasis on the usage of "Zhongfeng" which means the central hair of the brush should always stay in the middle of the line while drawing. Surely this rule has been ignored for many ink painters who activated since last century, and I don't think to stick on a certain way to paint is a good thing to keep this traditional art growing, however, the concept of "Zhongfeng" does have a deeper meaning. The action of "holding a brush vertically " and "keep the central hair in the middle of line" is a meaningful and effective way to train the painter physically and mentally. It asks for two things: the fully control of hand, wrist, arms, shoulder and back -- stable of the body; and a clear mind without distraction. 2) The process of Chinese ink painting is uncontrollable. Ink has liquidity, and differ with watercolor, the paper ink painting has less resistance for it spreading. For example, if we use a fully watering brush draw onto a watercolor paper, almost without time difference, we can see a clear edge of the color without obvious spreading, oppositely, if we use rice paper and brush with same moisture, the ink will spread for a bit while until it half drys. The edge of the ink is unpredictable. And it is exactly part of its charm. Of course every material has its own “free” which painter cannot 100% control with, for ink painting, this “free” is more like the main selection criteria for material. And that, also reflects the idea of “have-no-activity” in Taoism -- the material always presents their “reply” to paiters’ action, painters should be aware of what is natural effort onto the painting and what is not to make the dialogue continuing.

While drawing, the information is not unidirectional. Each stroke added to the canvas or paper, will change the aspect of the work, painter analyses the new information and decides what and where to draw next stroke based on it. Drawing or painting is an “event”, for me, because painter keeps communicating with the work, and it is the most charming part of drawing. The information we get keeps updated, maybe we have an idea or sketch about how the work should looks like, but during the procedure of making, the conversation between work and us can always trigger the inspiration.

Beyond the information transferation between painter and work, also, each action has certain impact to the older ones. Here is an example of Barry Le Va’s Shatter scatter As I see this work is very much like the process of drawing: the result is unpredictable, the artist(painter) only can control part of his work--the shape of scatter, the quantity and the size of the fragments, are all uncontrollable. And every layer which lays upon the older ones, has effected and been effected to the older ones. Drawing is similar in this way -- the painter can do his/her best to control the paint, the brush, the canvas by training, but he/she can never grasp the whole proceeding. Different layers of paint, ink or pigment is always influencing each other -- mix or conflict. There are always some emergent factors happen in the between, it can either be the increasing heart beating, the noise from the outside, or the unpredictable shaking triggered by a passing truck. ( Here "digital" drawing is beyond the scope of the discussion.) Barry Le Va called this work as "isolated isolated contained art", there is on pristine glass tops the others, this act is the relative mounting, to "encases the raw energy of the work's creation"(from the description of Barry Le Va - Shatter scatter by MOCA).

In the small book about zen < Zen in the art of archery>, the author describs so detailly of the procedure he has been through during the study of zen. The different stages he went through reminds me the similar feeling which has flicked in my mind during the process of drawing. To sit quietly, slow the breathing, usually is my first step to immerse myself to the process. It is difficult. Distractions keep coming. The distraction comes from the outside environment and my own mind. From outside is easy to understand however to control the destractions from inside requires discipline. We can block noise, set proper light for drawing, but if the “noises” is coming from inside, how can we block them? Certain proper training does help, my way is before starting a new drawing, make a lot of horizontal lines until my breath becomes steady and slow. However, this “starting actions” is not something done once and for ever, the noise from mind just keeps producing by my all kinds of thoughts. This is the ambition of the painter. And no one can do a better judgement than the painter herself if she is totally quiet in mind when she is drawing.

“ When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. ” — Jackson Pollock

This description of Jackson Pollock’s experience of painting, I think it precisely depicts how a “quiet” or “empty” mind should looks like. The actions he took into his painting is not forced, they are generated spontaneously without conscious thinking. It is an ideal or natural condition for drawing or painting.

Chapter II Motivation

Here is a story about the great Chinese painter Zhang Sengyou (Chinese: 张僧繇)Originally written by Zhang Yanyuan from Tang Dynasty:

''Zhang one day decided to paint a dragon on the wall of his house. He guided his brush with full confidence, and after a while the dragon was finished except for its eyes. Suddenly the master's courage failed him. He simply did not dare to paint those eyes. When, many months later, he at last felt brave enough, he groped for his brush and with swift strokes dashed in eye and pupil. Within an instant the dragon broke into cloud roaring and flew away, leaving a trace of fire and smoke.

Here is explanation from a western scholar : “In the Asiatic world, belief in the supernatural power of the artist remained alive over greatly prolonged period. And there was no absolute division between magic, religion and philosophy in the east, especially in China. Taoism, as the primitive Chinese philosophy, effects the developing of Chinese painting on a fundamental base. It influences the establishment of the material system and the construction of the painting principles.” (Fritz Van Briessen, < The Way of the Brush>, 2003, page 26 )

The power of the combination of magic, reliogion and philosophy probably is barely to find in current China, but I think the respect to nature power, or, as my understanding, the respect to “life” itself has been spread by different traditional arts

(pic 1,  Facing the Moon, Ma Yuan)

And this “belif in the supernatural power” somehow also impacts me, not because the faith in supernatural, but harmony between human and nature expressed from those ancient paintings which I know deeply it is impossible to replay today.

There are two things of Chinese philosophy has influenced Chinese art on a fundamental level, one is the aspiration to "nature"( the ideal nature in Taoism also physically beautiful nature in the ancient time), and the usage of metaphor. There is a poetry describes the aspiration to nature by Tao Yuanming (365–427) from Eastern Jin Dynasty:

I built my hut in a zone of human habitation, Yet near me there sounds no noise of hourse or coach, Would you know how that is possible? A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it. I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge, Then gaze long at the distant summer hills. The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day; The flying birds two by two return. In these things there lies a deep meaning; Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us. (Translated by Arthur Waley)

" Here we have Taoism at its best." ( Fung, 1948）Taoism is one of the main philosophical genres from ancient China. "In these things there lies a deep meaning; Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us." It does express the most obvious differences between Chinese and Western philosophy. Thus the usage of metaphor in Taoism is quite common. Metaphor is so vague and unspoken. The widely appearance of metaphor in literature works of philosophy makes it so difficult for people to understand the whole purpose, somehow it asks the reader to train their ability to think and feel, either for daily routine or the real truth of life and universe. I don't believe this "unspoken" feature is an expression of mysticism of Chinese philosophy, it is more like what Zen says, human language is not a proper tool to express the deep truth , and it can only be experienced by the deep heart. However, as an artistic language, painting (and other artistic forms ) is possible to express this “deep meaning” in the poem.

Thus when we look at Chinese paintings, there is so much empty space in Chinese painting, whether landscape painting or still life painting. For example, Ma Yuan, one of my favorite painter activated in 12th century, he is famous for his special composition style “one corner” , in which he only places the subjects of the painting to one corner or one side, and leave the other parts empty. (pic 1, Facing the Moon, Ma Yuan)

(pic 2 , Lotus, Rocks and Water Fowls, Badashanren )

Or another great painter Badashanren, who lived in 17th century, is famous by his minimalist image and technique with strong personal style to depict still life. He rarely follows the practical principle of Chinese ink painting such as certain expression style of branches or leaves, but the “tao” which circulating in his paintings is similar with Ma Yuan’s works.

This idea of “tao” is coming from Lao Ztu and Zhuang Ztu, they believe the deepest understanding about life and the universe we live in is to forget about the distinction between things, even forget about the distinctions of things appear in one’s life. And this lost of distinction is not because of ignorant, is because of nescience after understanding. Everything in the world combines together as a vague entirety, and Tao goes through them as “none”. If we say landscape painting is growing out of Taoism, then the desciption about mountain and water just touch the surface, how those ancient masters construct these element on painting, how to depict water and mountain, not for building the confliction, instead is for a perfect combination of harmony, the harmony generated from general confliction. That is, the “vitality” said by Xie He in his “Six principles of Chinese painting”.

 Hiroshi Sugimoto - Seascape: Baltic Sea, near Rügen, 1996          

Caspar David Friedrich - The Monk By The Sea, 1808

Ma Yuan - A Series Paintings of Water, around 1200

Here are three images depict the “Sea”, done by three artists from different ages. They all depict the view of sea, from different aspects, using different construction and mediums. However, since they chose the same topic, we could trace these images to speculate their understanding and motivation for depicting the nature. The newest work is Hiroshi Sugimoto’s <Seascape>. This one has the strongest contrast on black and white in the series. The construction is perfectly balanced to transfer very much silent atmosphere. Somehow It looks the photographer cannot control the subject, the danger is obvious. Sugimoto tried to present the connection between he and the “uncontrolablle sea” precisely. The second one was painted by Caspar Friedrich. He chooses a monk as the main element in the image, which has the association about unselfishness, clean or solitary. He seems place himself as a viewer, and keep the distance to the scene, he is not involved. The third one is made by Ma Yuan, the great painter from Song Dynasty, China. His painting is much more released, the seascape, the fog over the sea, the waves changing... the world is a whole, either the seascape or the painter himself. I am fasinated by all of three images, for the richness presented in the paintings or photo and the diversity of the attitudes these artists show to us.

Chapter III Last year I have made a work < How to draw a perfect circle >. This work is consisted by a video depicting the process of drawing circles and the physical drawings. The video starts with 300 animated circles, showing one by one continuely, then there are three screens presented the repeat of the movement of drawing circles. Beside the video, 300 sheets of circle drawings are placed in a transparent box. This work is not literally explaning "how to draw a perfect circle", it trys to express the endless way to the stage of perfect which we all know it is unreacherable. But sometimes the “unreachable” can be the drive which make us get as much close as we can to the “perfect”.

, it is the tool which drive us move towards. The real and concrete thing is the time we spend on the training, either on mental or physical aspect. I edit the video to three screens to emphasis the flowing of time.