Perhaps it’s because drawings don’t try to hide what they are. They often wear the secrets of their creation on the surface of the paper. The fact that it is graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, etc is not disguised; it is celebrated through the drawing. Sometimes the struggle that went on in the creation of the drawing is still evident through erasures and multiple attempts at making the right mark. This struggle is often part of the life of the drawing and provides a tiny glimpse into its making.
Perhaps there’s something about the combination of immediacy and intimacy of drawing that instinctively attracts me. Drawings tend to live their lives on a small scale, and as such are quieter and often more personal than the declaration of painting. These objects, often made from the most basic materials of pencil and paper, invite us into their world without thinking. The unassuming, humble drawing invites us to get closer and in doing so has the potential to sneak up and surprise us when we least expect it.
Perhaps it’s the link back to childhood that I find so compelling about drawings. We all could draw before we could write, and there was a period in all our lives where drawing was a legitimate form of communication; full of confidence and unabashed expression – not something to be judged and hidden away. Drawings, even very sophisticated ones, can remind me of this link and perhaps the best ones are full of this youthful confidence and generosity.
Perhaps it’s because drawings are often used as a cipher for ideas. Drawing is not just a way to record what we see, drawing is a way of thinking.
But can the unassuming, immediate, simple drawing really change the world? Have there been drawings that have really made a difference to the way we live our lives, or how we think about ourselves?
Because the form of drawing is so accessible to so many people, there are a lot of drawings out there potentially competing to be amongst the ones that make a difference that makes a difference. But there are, I think, three types of drawings that have the potential to actually get us to think differently and could therefore, ultimately, change the world.
The first category is drawings that describe how things work. These drawings are often first-hand reportage of sights or events that few people would have seen and are, in many ways, like journalism. Probably more significant before the age of photography and digital cameras, but there are some drawings in this category that, in their day, probably opened peoples eyes to things that existed that they had never seen, or even considered before. Early maps and anatomical drawings are key players in this category. These drawings, transformed pieces of paper into windows onto a new universe of understanding. Maps help us understand questions like, how do we get from here to there? Anatomical drawings can help answer what am I and how did I get here?
Leonardo da Vinci - inside the womb
The second category is drawings that describe what might work one day. This is where I place all the sketches of new ideas that then turn into the things that transform our world one way or another. Most ideas that lead to technological advancements, whether big or small, start with a drawing. The first sketch of a new idea for a clothes peg, a shoe, or an office building all start in a similar way, on a similar size of paper. Somewhere, there is a the first concept sketch of the space shuttle.
Thomas Edison - sketch for the light bulb
And the third category is for drawings that describe how things feel. These drawings are often very personal images that don’t depict either current or future reality, but instead capture a feeling or an idea that is otherwise ineffable. These drawings are perhaps less able to change the world given the fact that they tend to be driven by the drawing itself. What I mean here is that in the first two categories, it is clear that the drawing is not the end goal, it is simply a means. The drawing is a way to visualise something that either is, or could be.
Antony Gormley - figure
But in this third category, the drawing is both the means and the end at the same time. These drawings, if they do change the world, aren't operating on the mass marketing level of change of the previous two categories. This third category is more personal and if they change the world, they do so by impacting the lives and psychologies of only a few people, but the impact is potentially very deep.
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