Of Lines and Colors

It is an issue of continuing concern - this whole question of coloring and lines. You give a kid a bunch of crayons and a piece of paper and they soon become little Jackson Pollocks. Wild swirls of color, well, sometimes they color over colors until everything fades to black. But that's to be expected- a lot of Pollock's stuff was heavy on the black.

But eventually the whole idea of "lines" comes into play. Often in kindergarten - or "pre-K," a concept I have trouble with. Sort of like students who graduate with a "4.6 gpa on a 4.0 scale." How does that work anyhow? But I digress. Back to lines. They often start as simple "coloring pages." Simple line drawings of a house, a pony, cat, dog. You know what I mean.

Initially it is fine if our young Picassos scribble over the entire page, but eventually they are encouraged to "color inside the lines." So that dog, cat, etc., take on more of the aspect of the critter in "real life." And so it goes for a number of years until perhaps in an art class, or an intro to business seminar, one is encouraged to "color outside the lines" the more artistic version of the prosaic "think outside the box." But I'm concerned with lines, not boxes - and the effect of lines on drawings.

I have mentioned before my inability to "do" realism on paper. I suppose I could have been taught at least the basics of that skill which I still see as magical. But alas, in my formative years if it didn't get applause I was not interested. So theater won out. Then later, lecturing to more captive audiences in the classroom - the applause there was rare, but meaningful when it occurred.

But through all those years I continued to "doodle." And what is doodling? Well, basically just putting lines on paper in a way that reflects our thinking regarding the current presentation - or boredom with same that drives our pen or pencil to facilitate our escape. But - and this is the important part - they are our lines!

Too often the debate over inside or outside the lines blithely ignores the fact that the lines were made by someone else. In the pre-K example the lines were supplied by the teacher handing out sheets copied from some source or another. In the adult - more metaphorical - example, the lines are the result of policies dictated by some CEO, priest, potentate, or president who expects you to "color within the lines" or face some sort of blowback for your failure to "toe the line." But again I digress. Back to lines on paper, and the coloring thereof.

When attempting to draw "realism" the subject to be drawn brings with it the preferred lines. Even in a Bob Ross video where "there are no mistakes, only happy accidents," Ross teaches us tricks and techniques that allow us to fool the eye and make our "mistake" look like the "real" tree, or fence, or reflection in the water. I suggest we move beyond tricking the eye into seeing that which is real and, rather, to draw the lines that allow us to create the thing we wish to represent. Let's go back to the image I shared in the last post, "Toasting the Roses."

In that image you can see my drawings of how I want the roses, bottles and glasses to appear. The lines are my lines. Nobody told me what they were supposed to look like. So since they are my lines the proper treatment is to color inside the lines.

Now let's take a look at a close up of the bottles over at the right of the image. Here you can see the three steps. Moving from left to right you can see the simple outline of the bottles, and next the bottle with the designs drawn in - again, my lines. And then finally the bottle with the designs colored in. My lines, my colors.

So, that is the point. Create your own lines. But here are some thoughts on how to go about creating those lines - for those of us beyond pre-K into more mature phases of life. Just as the policy, political, corporate, religious and philosophical structures within which we function in the real world impose their lines upon us, we can create our own lines - and art - that reflects or "colors" our own metaphysical reality.

My 76, creeping up on 77 years, of life have led me to two primary aspirational states. i.e. Goals I wish to achieve but, with which I still stumble.

The first comes from my email signature. [My words. Not a quote.]:

"Who we are is a quality of the moment. What we have done in the past cannot be undone, and what we have promised for the future remains but a promise. So live each moment in the awareness that it defines you." 

The second set is more specific:

"Foster harmony." or strive for cooperation, not confrontation.

"Enable beauty." Write, draw, speak, move, so as to create the artifacts that make the world, or at least your space in it, more beautiful. Lines and colors. Dance?

"Distill complexity." Try to pierce the web of words, positions, policies, etc., that surround us in a way that clearly reveals the central, true, meaning. Speak, write clearly. [I hear you laughing. But I really do try.]

"Oppose harm." I realize this is in many ways simply a restatement of foster harmony. But maybe I need the emphasis.

So go, make some lines on paper. Color them with colors that make you happy.