We drew what we saw when we felt what we heard

עָלַי לְהַעֲנִיק לַדָּם 

  אֶת צִבְעוֹ הָרָאוּי

          אֲבָל אָדֹם

    הוּא עֲדַיִן צֶבַע

    שֶׁאֵינֶנִּי מְעִזָּה

              לְבַקֵּשׁ

This Sunday we (unknowingly) celebrated a Birthday.

- I received some poems from Efrat Mishory (one of the Poetesses I adore), and used it at the session. we made a nice gift for her (I hope she likes it :)

We were at the Rodin museum garden (a beautiful Sunny Sunday!)

I printed some poems (in Hebrew) on A3 / A4 papers

Than:

- a page is randomly picked by a participating drawing-ninja.

- I read the poem in Hebrew, than a free-translation, than read it again

- Participants wrote what they wanted on the page to remember it

And now, go and draw something, and use the poem as an inspiration (or don't), but try not to illustrate it... see if it clashes with the reality you put on paper.

Notes:

- When publishing  below, I kept the drawing orientation. (and not the text one)

- The A3 papers had an printing problem so some pixels of the text are not printed.

- I uploaded all drawing in arbitrary order, and numbered them, so when (and if) you leave comments, you can refer to a certain one.

- Translations below are clumsily done by me, and I tried to put in parentheses double meanings.

Below are the results,

Happy Birthday, Efrat!



#1

A poem

is a tool

with a one-second warranty

#2

Shall we walk on the moon?

#3

Save yourself

from the place

you are about (standing)

to occupy (catch) inside me

#4

You knew how to give

only answers

therefore I asked

A lot of questions?

#5

There are all sorts of approaches to the past

I smell

the tomorrow

And remember

Thru today

#6

Minifying glass

Note: posted small at direct orders

#7

I gave you a mountain

I gave you a mountain

I gave you a mountain

Of every thing

#8 

Everything crumbles

to a form (shape)

Note: Michel was so frustrated when he realized the letters were badly printed,

Still - the Hebrew-ness is in there, and it can be read.

(and me - I like noise and distortion and abstraction levels...)

#9

A poem

is a tool

with a one-second warranty

Note: a drawing by my first 'student' and two new and 'I don't know how to draw' members 

#10

Shall we walk on the moon?

#11

Whoever got others

out

to continue

staying in

doesn't know

that I am sending a hand

inside

to continue

getting out

#12

Not fortified anymore

(not in a shape (hence shape-less) anymore)

Note: a four handedrawing

#13

The question is asked why?

and the answer is given: because (like that)

The question is asked how-much?

and the answer is given: a mountain

--

Beh

(note: Mountain = Har, Har+Be = Harbe = 'a lot')

#14

Want (in plural) growth

and not

signs of growth

want love

and not

signs of love

want warmth

and not

a broken oven

Note: two-handed

#15

I'm

shivering (Female form)

from heat

cold

and mediocrity (in-between-ness)

Note: three-handed

#16

Laying

inside a hammock

rocking

with no mercy

We are uncomfortable

from how comfortable we are

#17

No more

Not yet (more no)

#18

If the infinity steps in the room

we'll show him

what

is

#19

Save yourself

from the place

you are about

to occupy inside me

Note: done in a rush using both hands by a new member

#20

The pencil point that was shrusted

determined the destiny of the circle

That I have to make

here

Note: left + right hand

#21

The defeat makes me

want to get dirty

- (makes) you

(want to) stay clean

we are both very clean

Note: left + right hand

#22

I'm

shivering (Female form)

from heat

cold

and mediocrity (in-between-ness)

#23

Kisses to everyone who

shall not be (to whoever)

---

the light is blind!

the light is blind!

the light is blind!

Note: drawns without looking @ paper

#24

Minifying glass

#25

I

am refusing (female form)

to any red offer

#26

Talking

Is a form of communication

---

She has a mouth

he has an ear

They talk

She speaks

he is silent (active tense)

They talk

#27

No more

Not yet (more no)

Note: done with eyes closed

#28

To give you knew

only answers

therefore I asked

A lot of questions?

Note

#29

Everything crumbles

to a form (shape)

#30

Talking

Is a form of communication

---

She has a mouth

he has an ear

They talk

She speaks

he is silent (active tense)

They talk

Note: two people drawing

#31

We shall meet

when we will be free

Note: 3peopledrawing

#32

Squirting triangles in all sorts of shapes

doing them troubles, doing them troubles

rounding lines in a precision of a compass

raising (waking) worries, raising worries

Note: do you see Rodin's thinking-man?

#33

You dreamt always of full lips?

Why dream?

Fill now

a form

#34

Don't close me in

in a bubble

that you're about (that you are standing)

to burst

#35

- (the sea drowned)

- (the sea drowned)

- (the sea drowned)

Note: 'I wanted to draw the fountain's water, but settled for waves of flowers' (a quote)

Also - the original intention was horizontal:

Some videos...

(By Dov)

Lately I saw some videos that really moved me, and I'd like to share with you...

First one takes an exercise we did a few times, drawing by someone else's description, and pushes it to a new level, (and yes... it is a commercial, but still...)

 

 

---------

---------

 

Second... before I created the meet-up I found a Beta-tester, and had a drawing session with her at the Palais du Tokyo, she never came to a 'true' session, but today she sent me a video that I highly recommend:

- The video is called Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See and is a highly recommended.

 

Hope you enjoy both, and leave a comment if you did (or did not)

 

Dov.

Science and art (video)

 

(By Anna)

Your Mama Should've Named You Juice

Hej y'all,

So, yesterday. I want to thank you all for your presence, the creativity you share and the open-minded spirit floating in the air.
I brought a guest with me and today-for the lack of my own inspiration- I made him partly write this post.
I gave him a sheet of paper to write 3 nouns, 5 adjectives, 4 adverbs and 1 key word belonging to a grammatical subcategory of his choice. His words, his thoughts, his view. Then I added photos from yesterday, based on the words he wrote. WHat that means to me. Or sth. like that.
Here as follows:

3 nouns:
-colours

-juice

-people

5 adjectives:

-skilled

-creative

-dedicated

-passionate

-open

4 adverbs:

-randomly

-inspirationally

-precisely

-collaboratively 

Have a nice week!

Natasa

Frank promotes his new record How's Your Bird & The Worlds Greatest Sinner movie and then plays a bicycle

(By Deha)

Shadow theatre and Sand

Hello everybody,

I wanted to share some cool things I found with you and with a slight encouragement from Dov:), here it goes:

First is Shadow theatre, an amazing group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Fv98jttYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0_dwb2x4qc

I like it so much because the work with negative space and they tell a story in a simple but striking way. No need for words or details.


Second is the artist Kseniya Simonova. She does sand art and is simply amazing.This is the link for her youtube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/SimonovaTV/videos


And some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17MboedZYqo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxT9duegj8c

There's really a lot of videos of her work.


Till next time!

N.

Talking drawing

About the meetup in Parc Floral in March 2014. Here is an email Dov has sent me, with my response:


Hi Francois, 

I was wondering about yesterday, 
In fact, I felt it was not that great a meeting, we were not focused, a lot of people didn't show up, quite a few left in the middle, it was too chilly, and I had a hard time being with my son and the group at the same time. 
Since you wrote it was fun and relaxing, I wanted to have your real feedback, so I can have another point of view. 
Also - I forgot to tell you, I bought a great la-cost swetshirt I wanted to offer you, it was in my bag but I forgot, remind me next time. 
And last - last week I was in Vienna, and saw the Hunterwasser museum and building, and thought about you and how you use color: 
http://goo.gl/twiKyh
http://goo.gl/5NVMbf

------------------------------------------------

Hi Dov, 

- I understand your point of view about yesterday. I will tell you how that afternoon was for me. 

First, when I was arriving (around 2pm), I randomly met Sankar just in the street. That was funny because this is the second time that lucky thing happens to us. So we were talking together before the start of the meetup.  First about economy, but then about light and contrast. He said the light today was not good, because there was no intense light so the landscape has no contrasts.

Hence the bad weather turned into an interesting idea for me:

* How to draw low-contrasted things (a big challenge for me since I always do very contrasted drawings)

Then I was looking around to find a good drawing subject, that was difficult because nothing was really interesting, the statues or landscape were not good.

This was another good thing:

* I really liked what Hammed has done since he succeeded to choose a banal statue and a banal view to make two stunning drawings.

So I had to choose a drawing object... I was looking for a subject or for (rare) high contrasted things. And Aine was just there with her beautiful red hair and black jacket. There was light on her jacket and on her hair. I drew it (just a few details), then drew a low contrast background but with many more details.

I'm happy, she liked it and took a photo of it, next time we'll meet I'll give her the drawing. 

Then, I tried another challenge. I never know how to draw a tree, so I tried it... and while doing the roots, I had an idea to make it less obvious but a bit more fun and colored. and then I turned this grey sad tree into a funny thing...

I didn't know what to pick next in the landscape but than I remembered my son asked me several times to draw a rainbow for him. So I started it... I started to draw a crazy rainbow. You were playing the guitar, while I was drawing, that was so peaceful and I was thinking of my son. That was very "emotional". Usually kids do drawings for their parents, but this time I was doing one for him... and then you said we stop in 30 seconds... a quick unexpected challenge! so I had to do quickly empty squares and an eye in the dragon head at the bottom, I was happy about the result, otherwise the drawing would have been too heavy.

Another funny thing was when Ophelie called on your phone and I had to manage finding her in the parc. She knows only 3 words in french and that was a real challenge! This could only happen in a meetup! 

And on the other side of the coin:

I didn't have enough time to talk (or draw) with Nathalie, you, Deha or the other newcomers. I also had less time to share all these things... Maybe I should write an article in my blog (or in the group's blog) about them... it is difficult to do all these things during a single meetup. When I came with my son last time I could only focus on drawing with him, and almost didn't talk with people. It's difficult to do so many things during a single afternoon. 

And about people not showing up, I guess last minute cancellations are very common in all the meetups... and along with the time-shift and the grey clouds that did the rest.  It's just human nature, procrastination?  

An idea for next time:

First time I went to "petit palais" you started the meetup with a talk about drawing the void, maybe it could be interesting to add these kinds of themes:

- drawing in low-contrast

- drawing in high contrast

- drawing shadows

- drawing squares

Perhaps with some citation about it to excite the imagination, what do you think? 

Wow, I'm writing a lot, I hope you are not bored too much. thank you so much for the sweatshirt and thank you for the Hundertwasser, he seems to be a great artist, I will read about him, but the style looks really great ! 

If you want, we could have a beer to talk some more about all those thoughts this week, what do you think? 

A+

François

------------------------------------------------

Thanks a lot!

I'd publish my email and yours in the blog as is! such a great response!

I am truly proud to have met you, I learn a lot from you everytime we exchange :)

I truly think you are more adventurous than me, and would love to participate in a meetup that you organize!

About the emptiness session, it was indeed very strong, and I think it's also because of its uniqueness, and uniqueness is something that is hard to reproduce. (you can't cross the same river twice, etc.)

We may try searching koans - a koan may be a great subject because the rules are very strict, and this is the source of creativity, when you put hard limits, the creativity searches where to bloom from 

Would love to meet this week,

Dov.