On Sunday, June 26th the Drawing Together community again gathered. Our session was led by GMIC board member Susan Squier. Susan is Brill Professor Emerita of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of many books and a co-author of the Graphic Medicine Manifesto. You can read her full bio here.
For our opening exercise, Susan asked us to consider summer as a season of gatherings – graduations, picnics, parades, reunions, vacations. Susan invited us to bring to mind one particular summer gathering, one that nourished or challenged us, real or fictional, and take five minutes to describe it in words.
After that is done, consider the work of Lynd Ward, whose birthday it was the day of our gathering, in 1905.
Susan asked us to, like Lynd Ward, work in black and white and draw the gathering we wrote about above on one sheet of paper, taking about 10 minutes.
Next, Susan discussed the work of Sonia Delaunay, her “Orphism” – the use of colors, shapes, and rhythms, big and small, thick and thin, high and low, horizontal and vertical, whole and half.
Susan then asked us to draw the gathering again, inspired by Delaunay, letting yourself play with colors and rhythms. No stick figures: use only circles, shapes, and lines. Take 15 minutes.
Reflection: Was there a difference between your written and drawn versions of the gathering? Why did you position the shapes, circles, and lines the way you did?Did using black and white affect your representation of the gathering? Did using color change how you represented or experienced the gathering? In what way(s)?
Feel free to share your work on social media with the #DrawingTogetherGM
Susan adds these additional resources:
- https://artroombritt.blogspot.com/2018/04/robert-and-sonia-delaunay-concentric.html
- https://hyperallergic.com/738635/through-art-texans-memorialize-victims-of-uvalde-shooting/
- https://www.facebook.com/lyndward
- https://arthur.io/art/sonia-delaunay/baby-quilt-made-for-her-son-charles
- https://www.graphicmedicine.org/drawing-together-19-color/. Thanks to Mita Mahato.
It was. Really great session particularly since I went to a gathering of my Interfaith artist group later that day!
Hi! I thought I signed up for notifications, but some how I failed to hear about the drawing together session. Are email invitations sent out to individuals or was there a notice posted somewhere (where should I be looking?)?
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