jennyarntzen.art

  I shot this sequence of crows drinking from the water bucket during the drought last summer. I just happened to be up on the front porch for a coffee break and saw the crows were also taking a break and getting a drink. The only way to for me to get a good feeling from a drawing is to be drawing enough that my hand feels relaxed and my eye has some sense of how what I am seeing can be re-visualized as a mark on the paper. When I am starting drawing after a period away from my art desk, there is always this strange feeling about making the drawing. An internal question - will I be able to make a drawing that I like? Making a drawing takes patience and continuous learning. I can start anywhere, I'm still not going to know where things are going to end up. The more I do it, the more comfortable I get, the more relaxed I am as I sit down to draw. Any given drawing is going to teach me how it needs to be rendered, what it needs me to figure out so I can make the translation. Any pictu...

  I like how this cat is looking a little frayed around the edges. It is definitely reflective of my inner state and the existential fraying that is going on as I navigate these mysterious days. This is the synchrony of drawing practice. Drawing is a way to bring to life a sense or experience that has not been given words. It is often a feeling that I'm not aware I am experiencing until I make a drawing and then step back and look at what it is telling me. My world is very small these days. I do not see many people, I do not travel far from my back door. I walk the same routes day after day. My inspiration comes from noticing the small changes going on around me, the creatures who share my world, nature and life in my urban neighbourhood. It isn't that I feel lonely, per se. I am living with my frail elderly mother. I see and talk to various family members everyday. My neighbourhood is full of friendly, interesting people and I am excited to get to know all the creative women o...

  Green cat is done for now. Tonight I added another layer of warm brown and white ink to the drawing.  It takes courage to go back to a drawing that has been very satisfying in it's unfinished state, knowing there are more layers to go on, and, also knowing that additional layers will enhance and enrich the previous layers or override them with a new sensibility. If the early layers become to precious, it can become impossible to do anything more on a drawing. I have a few on my desk that are in that stage. I love the initial drawing so much I don't want to add layers. But the initial drawing feels unfinished, like there is more that is needed to build the image and bring the drawing to life.  It is true that I could ruin a perfectly satisfactory drawing by adding layers. It is also true that I could get stuck in cowardice, of not finding out the story the picture wants to tell, because I was satisfied with the start of the story but I couldn't bear to stay for the end....