Along with the vast majority of people on the planet, I have found myself overwhelmed during the pandemic. Aside from the stress of trying to conduct life and parent and teach preschool in-person in this very peculiarly stressful context, I am one of the people whose schedule has become even more busy and intense. All of which preamble is to explain why my creative mojo disappeared.
Art has always been a stress-buster for me but, of course, it is one of life’s little ironies that it is normally when life is at its most demanding that I cannot find time for that therapeutic dose of art. It is also true that the longer time passes when I am not making time for art, the more my creative gears seize up and my creative mojo departs. Finding my way back to art and scraping the rust from those gears is always a slow process. I know from experience that I get creatively crippled if I try too much at once and it just leads to another setback. I, therefore, tend to start small and then build myself back up to a normal level of art time and degree of ambitiousness with a project.
My small start on this occasion involved using Post-It notes as my substrate. It started by accident. I drew doodles on them as “lunch notes” for my kids and stuck them to the fridge door so that they had a surprise. We are a family of movie fans and my two middle sons in particular are obsessive movie nerds. Consequently the drawings on the Post-It notes were inspired by movies we had watched. You might observe from the selection here that there is a particular penchant for the movies of Ingmar Bergman and for mid-century Soviet cinema.
This is Andrei Rublev from the film of the same name.
This one is a take on the Bluray cover of ‘The Ascent’, awkward foreshortening and all.
My 14 year old adores Liv Ullman so I had to draw her.
This duo are Death and Antonius Block from ‘The Seventh Seal’.
Finally this is Flyora from ‘Come and See’. That movie is absolutely one of the best I have ever seen but my goodness it is a hard watch.
I hope this selection illustrates the fact that this very simple activity actually succeeded in getting me back into regular drawing and started greasing those creative gears so that I could recover my atrophying art skills.
yes i do understand the situation. mine has gone out of orbit and is taking its own sweet time returning to ground level. i did ‘start’ on a new cover for the sofa and will finish it eventually, right now im on advil and ice pacs for dentures which i cant wear because of swelling. life throws us a curve sometimes….but this too shall end,,i am glad you are back,
(typing one hand while holding ice pac)
Oh no, Beverly! That sounds so very uncomfortable. I hope you get some relief soon. I wish you happy healing.
Thank you.
I love this concept and the drawings are fabulous!
Thank you very much!
I love these–both the drawings and the fact that you used a throwaway medium for them. Although a couple of those faces would make me think twice about eating that lunch.
Ha ha! I did start out with some cuter subjects but I pivoted to movie characters because those were what my kids appreciated most and those are the ones they preserved so I actually have photos of those.
Joking aside, I loved the emotion in them. It’s hard to get that in cute.
Thank you!
I bet that working in the more confining format of a Post-It note has prompted some prods to your creativity too !
Thanks. I think mostly it just eliminated the intimidation factor. I could easily throw it away if it turned out to be a rubbish drawing because it was only a Post-it note and the small size also made me feel like I could complete a drawing in a very short period of time.
Wow, I’m a fan of these all right. It seems that there are infinite possibilities for this format.
It made it easier to get back into drawing because of the small scale and the fact they were disposable – no guilt if I wasted the paper. I also like the fact they are very portable.
Yes. You took the restrictions of form and materials and really came up with something that is much more than the sum of its parts.
These are wonderful drawings!!!! And drawings as gifts are a great way to stage a “comeback”!! The life-gets-in-the-way of art thing happens to us all at one time or another. In addition to making gifts rereading “Art before breakfast” by Danny Gregory has helped me restart. I’m loving your good work already on the post-it notes!! Keep going!!!
Thanks, Sue. I borrowed that book from the library years ago and found it inspiring – along with your pep talks, it helped me look at 15 minutes as “I have time” rather than “I don’t have time” for art. The Post-It notes removed the intimidation factor as it didn’t matter if I messed up a drawing and the small size made me feel like I could complete a drawing in no time at all.
Yes yes yes!!!!! Bravo!!!! I applaud you wholeheartedly!!!! To quote a movie phrase your movie-buff son may recognize “Well done grasshopper.” 😁
Seriously, I am proud of you and honored to have been even a tiny part of inspiration for you!! ❤
Wonderful! I hope you keep these.
One of my sons has collected them up.
Oh my goodness I love your portraits – they are so expressive!
Thank you so much!
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