Another Look: Rodin and Drawing

Recently, in the Q & A after giving my lecture at Millersville University, I was asked if I find it important to draw as a part of my practice.

I answered yes.  But I liked the question and have been thinking about it.  Drawing is crazy because it can be so many things to different artists.  For me it is something to do alongside my paintings, not as a preparatory thing but as a way of aiding my looking.  When I draw something, I see it differently, more -- its ingrained in my memory better somehow.  Drawing is also something I do when I need to reset myself, get back to the center, refocus.  

Some can make drawing their solitary practice.  It can be taken so many places.  But I do think regardless of what type of drawing it is the thing many visual artists have in common.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), so well known for his sculpture, was an avid drawer (examples above).  He never did drawings for his sculptures but he always drew.  Which makes sense -- a writer reads a lot.  I think its sort of like that -- a visual lexicon that you accumulate for yourself and can use with a greater freedom when working in other mediums and ways.