IMAGINATION AND MEMORY

The photographs that we take and the drawings that we make are a form of memory.  They are a form of witnessing and seeing.

The things that we see; a form, a detail, a shadow, a setting, and a decay.  All of these inform our seeing and drawing.  They become ingrained in our memories.  Seeing is memory.

Because after the words have lost their meaning, and after the intent of the client is forgotten, and after the buildings themselves are likely dust, our drawings, our art will remain.  In the end, it will be our drawings that carry forward the creativity of our culture.

“Art is the artifact of the imagination, and the imagination is the best manifestation of immortality possessed by the human species, a collective tablet recording both human and inhuman deeds and desires.” 1

This great passage is from the astounding book, Nothing Ever Dies, by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Art lives in our imaginations.  As we have discussed before on the following pages, SEEING IS KNOWLEDGE and KNOWLEDGE DRAWING, memory is made of images.  Memory cannot exist or function without images.  Memory can and does function without words.  When we draw, we are in effect drawing on the collective human tablet.

Therefore, memory and art are inextricably linked.  In grade school, when asked to think of Ancient Greek Culture, we recalled an image of the Parthanon and amphora earthenware.  The essence of Greek culture was their visual art.  While this does not ignore their plays and mathematical advances, the first memory stop, the first place that we go to, the first place in our imaginations, are their visual arts.

Just as each of their creative efforts added to their cultural tablet, so do each of our creative efforts.  We add to our memories and we simultaneously add to our collective culture.

Imagination and memory.  It is at the essence of what we do.  And they are inextricably linked.

1. Nguyen, Viet Thanh.  Nothing Ever Dies. Harvard University Press;  Cambridge. 2016. p 12.