Maybe it was the title I chose for the fifth in my "Flash Mob" Series -- "Bent Out of Shape" -- that set things into a wonky spin over the last couple of months.
I started "Bent" with this drawing in January and took overly long to get paint on paper, thanks to my second semester art class and its extra hours of homework. (And that's a sincere thanks, too -- it was wonderful). In any case, there's been a lot of stuff bent out of shape during this winter that lingered on and on.
For one thing:-- What kind of no-name-brand art exhibit could merit an enormous advertising blitz almost daily in every Vancouver paper for almost three months straight?
When I finally checked it out, I found that it was essentially a huge promotional campaign for architect Kenzo Kuma who designed a bent-out-of-shape tower now under construction in Vancouver's downtown. Here's the glass-cased model that was on display:
I took a scenic byway on my route to the site of this exhibit and made several interesting discoveries when I reached there. Check out my adventure here and see if you agree on my choice for "Best of Show."
In late March, I continued an adventure I began last fall -- taking in a noon-time performance at The Dance Centre.
These are rather informal one-hour shows, and I took my sketchbook along, planning to get in some quick figure drawing. Well....."quick" doesn't begin to describe one of the qualities needed. Another quality is the ability to work in the dark. The November show featured "The Response," a young and vigourous company founded and choreographed by an amazing dancer named Amber Funk Barton. This link gives a sample of the kind of action I was trying to sketch....without being able to see my pen on the paper.
Result?
The March show by another young Vancouver company "Aeriosa" was even more startling. Their specialty is "vertical dance" -- challenging the perceptions of what dance is and the audience's perceptions of things like perspective. They dance in the air -- supported by the full rig that mountain climbers wear (most of them have a background in mountain climbing). View this link to get an idea of what the heck I'm talking about.
I was so excited about a second "Dance Centre" performance that I forgot about the whole business of .........the lights going out during the performance. In any case, doing this kind of quick sketching is good training for eye and hand, whether or not it's at all recognizable when the lights come up.
Now, coming full circle, I determined to finish "Bent Out of Shape" once my art class ended in mid-March. Again, I worked over an old painting -- and the early stages look almost like some of that indecipherable sketching from the Dance Centre.
And here's the finished piece (which you can see in its progression here).
Whew! Enough of the bends. Time to straighten out and relax........
...maybe slip off into another dimension...
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