When I draw a representational picture--for example, a room--I think
(quite consciously, btw) that the ceiling line **goes back in space**,
although all I've done is draw a flat diagonal line on the paper. Or
when I draw the model's arm, I think of the line that **goes around
the wrist**, although it is merely an elliptical arc.
One could say that the notion that the ceiling line "goes back in
space" or the other line "goes around the wrist" is *the meaning* of
the line, although in reality the line is only a two-dimensional mark
on a sheet of paper. It doesn't "mean" anything, now does it? After
all, the human viewer "interprets" the line to "mean" a room or figure.
I believe this experience is pretty much universal. We see the
representation as we make it, rather than the mediating entity. One
way in which a trained artist is different from an amateur or student,
as I've seen, is that the artist can shift his attention between the
represented thing in the picture (i.e., the line that "goes back in
space") and the actual form of the representation (the diagonal
charcoal line).
Generalizing a bit: When I extend my arm, I consciously will my arm to
reach outward. I can then decide to pronate or supinate it, to bend my
arm at the elbow, etc. To a small degree, I can control individual
muscles. I can show off my buff physique by intentionally tensing my
biceps or deltoids or pectorals. But I cannot control all the muscles
specifically: I can rarely intentionally cause a specific muscle to
tense up. I have to choose to execute an end result (extend the arm)
rather than consciously give instructions to all the muscles involved
in the action.
How is this related to drawing? In this way: In both cases, I am far
more conscious of choosing the result (extend arm, draw line that goes
back in space) rather than choosing the instrumental intermediate
thing (tense the triceps, relax the biceps, tense the deltoids, relax
the brachioradialis; or draw a diagonal line from upper left to lower
right).
Even more obvious than these examples is the way I react to hearing or
reading words in English. I simply cannot hear spoken English without
immediately (a) recognizing that it is English; and (b) grasping the
content (i.e., "meaning") of what is being said. Equally so with
written English. Now, I am quite adept at playing around with the
sounds of words, so I can manipulate the intermediate form (the
sounds) to produce different results (puns, jokes, ambiguities, etc.),
but I hear the meaning of the spoken words first, before I manipulate
them. And likewise, I read the "meaning" of words before I look at
their spelling or the typeface they are set in.
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Michael Brady
[email protected]
