Drawing Breath
Reflections on drawing breath in my drawing and sculpture practice, from past to present.
For some time now, I’ve been delving deeper into Drawing Breath. It’s always been part of the way in which I create work, from the palpitations of excitement over new ideas, to the slowing down of my breathing during long periods of repetitive mark-making that have a calming and meditative quality to them.
This can be seen in both my drawings and three-dimensional works, from String Wrapped to Imagined Lines and Groundlines as well as in recent drawing breath works.
Two of my drawings focusing directly on drawing breath, were exhibited in LIM(I)NAL at the Alastair MacLennan Archive, Nov-Dec 2020 and can be viewed on their website.
In February, I was accepted onto a weekend of Drawing Breath, led by Tania Kovats and Jane Sassienie. I’ve been wanting to do this course for some time so was delighted when the chance to take part came up. I was subsequently also accepted onto the Drawing Correspondence program so had the added bonus of being in the middle of an intense period of drawing. These are a few of my experiments from that weekend.
I found myself one evening drawing my in and out breath which I called An Hour Last Night. I’ve no idea why I made these marks, they just felt right at the time, and were my way of reflecting on drawing breath and unwinding during a busy period. I found myself reaching for this way of drawing again when I created a response to the Drawing Correspondence program, this time using a Sufi breathing technique, breathing through the elements, varying their order and intensity when connecting them to each of the six weeks. On reflection, I was possibly reaching out to line to generate some sense of order to my chaotic thoughts and messy drawing experiments. Line is often my instinctive way of working and a way to visually articulate my thoughts.
I’ve recently connected with a group of artists to explore Drawing Breath further and am looking forward to seeing where it leads.
Update (Nov 2021) :
Drawing Breath (Landscape), a pen on paper work, can be viewed online alongside other walking drawing works at #WalkCreate Gallery 1.