DOGON MALI AT AGO

Since we are away this week, I offer this drawing from one of our recent travels. When we were in Toronto, and toured the Art Gallery of Ontario, I came upon this interesting piece from the Dogon peoples of Mali.  Previous post about the AGO here.

Following Transparent Drawing procedures exactly I dutifully snapped this photo with my phone. And then I continued on thru the museum.

Then next morning, I used the form of the piece, and then did a vertical projection so as to produce a resolved enclosure

It is very satisfying to produce drawings like this from photos that you take. Or to say this another way, there is not as much ownership if you, for example, found this photo on the web, and then drew from it.

You do retain the memory of walking around the objects, maneuvering the camera so as to take the photo with the best advantage. You do retain a sense of the texture of the piece, and how the light hits it.

And then you always have to take a photo of the description of the piece.  This is super important.  Otherwise, you really have no idea what this piece is or how it relates to anything else.  I always see people taking photos of the art.  But I rarely see them taking photos of the description.

With this description, you can then look up other similar pieces.  You have a sense about when the piece was made.

And the point is that you were attracted to the piece. The point is that you selected this piece, by taking a photo of it. You were engaged in its three dimensionality.

All of this adds to the ownership and the subsequent internalization of your drawing.