Instances of Resistance and Daily Drawings

I haven’t had much time to get around and visit the galleries since teaching has taken up most of my recent days. The teaching has been good because it reminds me of the importance of foundational skills such as drawing and painting. The two are so much a part of my underlying experience that I don’t even think of them as separate skills in their own right. I rarely practice pure drawing or painting, and yet I often take for granted the ability to call upon them at will.

So… teaching has prompted me to uncomplicated my process a bit and do something I’ve wanted to do for several months: daily drawings. I’ve also wanted to combine the daily drawings with the Instances of Resistance project, but wasn’t quite sure where I would take it. Until a few days ago, I only knew that I wanted these isolated pieces of rogue plant-life to have a simple, candy-like preciousness to them. (I guess that would be the nostalgia I tend to play around with.) I also wanted the feral plants pushing their way up through the cracks of human construction to have an almost caricature persona and to leave a graffiti-like imprint on the ruins they inhabit.

Below are some drawings from the last few days (digital photo prints on Bristol Board that I’ve drawn over with an 8B pencil):
Instance graffiti #4: 11 feral plants, 8 twigs and 1 cross-beam in brick ruin

Instance graffiti #3: 9 feral plants in brick ruin

Instance graffiti #2: 3 feral plants above archway

Instance graffiti #1: 12 feral plants among others in brick ruin