Skipping Rope with Marmaduke

There's drawing--and then there's drawing.

There quite a few drawing a day sites. Being the curious gal I am, I visited a few and was amazed at the differences in styles. Then I was astonished. I ran into a site that had drawings done on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. I couldn't believe it. A drawing snob, I thought, "You call that drawing? that's not drawing, it's scribbling like any kid could do". Then of course, I had to try it, to see if this kid could forget everything I'd learned about drawing and art in school?

Scribbling away on the back of the suduko puzzle paper whatever simple subject popped out of my head, I questioned: "Is this art? Or a scam?"

It isn't art. Couldn't be. I was drawing on crap paper, not 100% rag that will last hundreds of years. I was also using a ball point pen from Staples,not Dick Blick. My supplies were very low end and had questionable longevity, totally unacceptable in my student years.

On the other hand: my child-like figures were expressive. Take them to a shrink and I'm sure she'd find some meaning in them. I was trying to tell some sort of story... I was expressing something. Though I wasn't sure what, I was sure that expressionistic drawing is definitely artistic.

My favorite crudely executed expressionistic drawing is my son's gradeschool drawing of his family life and what he'd like to do to his brothers. It was done on newsprint, a very perishable paper, and though yellowed from age still hanging on thirty plus years later.



Then there's Picasso's bullfighter scribbled on the bar napkin. --And the sculptures he made from jute and corrigated cardboard. Junk stuff--but expressive nonetheless.

By the end of ten minutes of drawing, I arrived at the conclusion that what I saw at this drawing of the day site was indeed art. And maybe even great art? It wasn't made to last forever, but more importantly it startled me. Grabbed my interest. Made me think. Though astonishly crude and unconventionable, it told me something about the artist and what was going on in his life. I would go back and become a follower.

Now, what is Marmaduke doing in my life jumping rope?