Collision

“Art is the collision of a man with the universe.” Eugene Ionesco

I’m fond of this definition of art, and it adapts easily to drawing. A doodle. A map. The Klein bottle. Vesalius on anatomy. A lesson in perspective. One of de Kooning’s women. A Degas pencil portrait. A botanical chart. The riches of the universe—both inner and outer—are always within the reach of drawing, and the universe itself is expanded by the drawings that spark from this collision. For me, Ionesco’s “collision” is one of will and courage, expecting that great energy is expended and that notable transformation happens. The whole self armed perhaps with only a pencil thrown at the whole of things.

Drawing as a disciplined skill begins the educational partnership of hand, eye and mind. The hand acts as a tool also of the mind, acknowledging objects, spaces, ideas and concepts. The hand speaks from and of the body and from the mind’s imagination. This synergy in drawing records the visual sparks of Ionesco’s “collision.”