Distraction Nostalgia
As a distraction from everything that’s been going on recently, I spent part of yesterday scanning old sketchbook pages from my art school days. Here’re some of the few I wasn’t so horrifically embarrassed about that I immediately pretended that they didn’t exist:
One of the odd things about going through the sketchbooks was finding things that I had no memory or explanation for; this page above looks like it’s something I drew from observation, but I have no idea where it could’ve been, and if I made it up, I have no idea what it could’ve meant: what’s with the child’s bike? Why the off-kilter angle? What’s with the Elastica poster? Well, okay, I can explain that last one: I drew this around the time the album was released, and I had become obsessed with it, listening to it non-stop. But everything else? I have no idea.
Another non-observation one, but I know where this all came from: It’s Rachel, from our Paris vacation on the Christmas following my 21st birthday. I don’t remember taking my sketchbook on that trip, though, so I’m guessing that this may have been done from memory, soon afterwards. This style of drawing was one that upset a lot of my teachers at the time, because they thought it was too scratchy and made it look like I didn’t know what I was doing (They were wrong).
I love the colors in this, self-importantly. Ignoring the impossible positioning inside the car – Seriously, how did they get in that position? – what this reminds me of is my love of the phrase “kissing in cars,” which for awhile was one of things that kept appearing in various places for awhile. “Kissing in cars” came, I think, from a song lyric that I can’t remember anymore, but I have no idea why I glommed onto it the way that I did… I blame my girlfriend at the time, and that which happened at the end of many evenings out. Ah, those were the days, apparently; who could be surprised it showed up in my work?
For the masochists amongst you, there’re more of the images here.
Related posts: