A Thousand Paper Cranes - Week 5

WAHOOOOO !  A Thousand Paper Cranes has been nominated for an AWARD for best project in Arts in Health at LoveArtsLeeds Festival. 

Recognition for what a GREAT project this is. Let the fun continue!

Grayson Perry’s Reith Lecture, broadcast on Tuesday, made a timely comment;

– The person who gets the most fun out of Art is the one who makes it.

This week’s activities concentrated on this, with a carefully planned series of drawing exercises or ‘games’.

Lines in the Air

Consider the lines we draw with our movements, our bodies, our actions.

Use the length of tinsel to trace these lines.

Hold a piece of tinsel in each hand. What feels like a good movement to make with these. Copy everyone's moves.

Make your Mark – Collective Drawing

We each started with an A3 piece of paper, and added marks following a series of instructions. After each instruction, we passed the paper to the person sat on our right.

Make a mark, in 10 seconds.

Make a mark with opposite hand.

Make a mark with one eye closed.

Make a mark with both eyes closed.

Copy a mark on the page, repeat it, rescale it etc

Add whatever is required to complete the work.

What an excellent way to stop me worrying about ‘what’ I was drawing and whether it looked any good.

‘I seem to have drawn loads of swirls. I can see my mark on each drawing.’

Giant Drawing

For this activity we had a large roll of paper spread across the floor and pencils taped to the ends of bamboo canes.

We made marks to describe a selection of words (descriptive emotions- busy, calm, angry, happy etc) as each was suggested.

The challenge was controlling the pencil on the bamboo, drawing with the whole body rather than just your hand.

We swapped the canes for pencils tied to string. It’s not possible to get any pressure on the tip. It needs to be a wet felt tip to get much marks. This takes any form of control away from what image you are trying to draw.

‘Mine’s moving on it’s own.’

‘I prefer the longer string – and swinging it.'

'There’s more control when the string is shorter.'

‘This was different.' 

Pair drawing

For last activity we worked in pairs, drawing an object (selected from the marvellously random collection in the shoebox). There were 3 versions of this activity.

1) One person keeps their eyes closed, and draws the object as it is described by their partner. It was difficult to know whether to describe the object in terms of what it is, its purpose, what it’s made of, or what shapes describe it.

2) Move you – One person holds the pen over the paper, while the other person directs their arm, to move the pen. This was really difficult. It required some pressure to hold the pen and give it some resistance so it could draw, but that felt like you were telling your pen where to draw. I could only let Susie completely guide my hand, if I looked at the far wall.. and NOT at what we were drawing. 

3) Move paper – One person holds the pen, as before, but this time the other person moves the paper under the pen, to create the marks. This was easier, as you only had to concentrate on holding the pen in the same position. I needed to support my writing hand with the other arm, so it didn’t float about.

 

‘It's hard not to try to make it into something, to make something beautiful.'

'I enjoyed the challenge (of not thinking about how it turns out). More freedom.'

‘But what’s it for?’ – Well, it’s for the fun of it!