What is Drawing? (Marquez)

 What is drawing? Are there specific tools/ surface/ media interaction that define this act? Must it be 2-D and does it require a frame/ boundary to exist?

~ Must drawing be graphic in nature? Elaborate with at least 2 examples.

~ Does the act of drawing necessarily result in a drawing? Are the two mutually inclusive? Explain.

~ Does drawing serve as the basis for other forms of art or stand on its own? Does it matter that we make a distinction?

~ Find three examples you feel best exemplify DRAWING with captions (artist, medium, date, and size) and an explanation on WHY you chose these.

Drawing is a mark on a surface that can include a wide variety of materials (graphite, ink, paint, a shadow on a wall etc). Personally I feel that a drawing must be 2-D. The feeling that one gets from a drawing on a flat surface is very different than the feeling of sculpture. The lines do blur greatly when I think of wire sculptures, they have a similar feeling to drawing, and I would say are drawings themselves but sculptures in clay, stone, steel, etc, stray away from drawing.

I’d say that drawings don’t have to be graphic. I’d think that the lines made while twirling a ribbon in the air could be considered drawings and I wouldn’t consider a fluttering ribbon to be graphic, same with drawings made with light, or even shadows on a wall. However I would say that once the twirling ribbon is capture in film or traditional drawing then it becomes a graphic image. The fleeting quality of twirling a ribbon is what eliminates the graphic quality. The idea of graphic images gives me the impression of static and unmoving. 

ex 1 Ribbon Twirling Google Search

ex 2: 

Title: Sans titre, (Venise)

ARTIST:  Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011)

WORK DATE:  1960

CATEGORY:  Works on Paper (Drawings, Watercolors etc.)

MATERIALS:  Encre brune sur papier japonais

SIZE:  h: 53 x w: 34 cm / h: 20.9 x w: 13.4 in

I wouldn’t say that the act of drawing results in a drawing, a scribbling can be the act of drawing but it’s not always considered a drawing; sometimes it’s just you checking to see if your pen is out of ink. Cy Twombly(above) did scribble drawings and I don't know that I personally value it as art, I recognize that it's thought of as art but I have trouble latching onto it. 

Drawing definitely is the base for many other types of art, especially the 2-D forms of art. It’s essential when planning large projects and fleshing out ideas but drawing is art on its and I don’t think that there really needs to be a distinction unless it’s an integral part of the idea behind a certain work, it’s up to the artist or the viewer to decide when the distinction for any given piece of art should be made. 

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Heather Hansen

"Emptied Gestures"

Charcoal

Varied sizes 

2013

I really liked the expressive marks that are attained through complete body movements. Hansen draws with  not just her arms but her entire body's reach. Website

Andres Amador

"Xiuhcoatl"from his Playa Paintings series

medium:sand

size:really big

I thought the scale of this work was probably the most striking thing, I don't see a ton of super huge drawings much less ones that take up a beach. I also think that the medium of sand is different. It's not really applying a medium to a surface it's removing material to create the image lines. 

Carrie Kaser

Alarm Fatigue No. 1 (Gallery View)

2011

Pen on Paper

120 X 45 inches

I really enjoyed the overlapping of images on this piece. It's a jumble of random lines at first glance and then a closer look reveals the contour lines of faces. Website