This is the last drawing I did and it's from several years ago. Just this week a close friend suggested that I take up painting again. I told her it doesn't work for me that way, as arbitrarily sitting down to draw does not really yield anything from my inner senses. It's not that I am a lazy artist – if I can be called a painter since over my 48-year-life, I haven’t painted more than 10 artworks!
Like some other artists, I find hand drawing - what we call traditional art - extremely trying although I would avoid the word irksome because however hard the work is, the process is something I truly enjoy. But it does take a lot of effort before I can put something out there that I can feel comfortable without feeling awkward or embarrassed because of a feeling that my so-called art may not live up to the expectations of my loved ones.
As can be seen from this combo of pictures, I scan or photograph all versions of the original source material to serve as a reference in order to get inspired to draw what appears in the fantasy compartment of my mind. In other words, I like fantasy art rather than realism and I try to achieve that by setting a reality scene or character into a context of fantasy by applying a variety of genres and hues. This has also led me to abandon hand drawing in favor of digital art because today’s software and apps can easily let me achieve the types of fantastical effects that I rather like more easily and speedily.
This also somewhat causes dissatisfaction among viewers who feel that artists have over centuries set the rules in order to get art to where it is today but I am not following in their footsteps because I am not trying to become a pro to monetize my artworks: it’s just a pastime, and it should not be regarded as anything more than a hobby by someone like me who sometimes get tired of writing and would like to take a break by indulging in art, photography, and videography.
In other words, my art is for my enjoyment only, and I share them with the public just in case there is a single human out there who can relate to my art. This was advice by a close Maldives friend and artist who expressed concern why I was inhibiting myself from showing my drawings to other people although I had no qualms in posting my photos and videos on my social media platforms.
The serious concern in my life is writing where I try to stick to the norms and traditions because I have to sell my product (copy-writing) to a variety of clients with a variety of specific needs – from writing journalistic pieces to advertising text and motion picture subtitles, not to mention text that is needed for corporate websites such as businesses and resorts which I now avoid because of the unnecessary stress that causes my mind: I mean, how many different ways are there to describe a “turquoise lagoon”?
I actually had a spat over this topic with a resort owner friend who rejected one of my copy-written texts because he felt I was being “repetitive”. Of course, I am guilty as charged because, as I mentioned just now, how many different ways of writing “aquamarine waters” for 50 different resort islands for a promotional magazine providing information on 50 different hotel properties?
I do admit I have a difficulty when it comes to writing in English because it is a second language while I find not much problems in writing in Maldives’ native language Dhivehi. However, I now avoid writing and translating legal documents, whether they are written in English or Dhivehi, because legal jargon has a grammatical formation and technicality where the terminology drives my mind crazy.
So, writing is the only area where I stick to the rules while visual mediums are where I indulge on a personal level and produce works that I can privately enjoy, and if someone wants, I can display publicly.
Hence, my artworks do not depict reality: they rather are a fantastic reimagining of what I would like to see and enjoy in my own mind. This means applying a good amount of colors and shades so that I can be inspired to draw or paint exactly what effect I want from a certain source material.
And another important point I mentioned to this friend when she told me to immediately get back to art is that I can draw or paint only when something inexplicable that is deep inside me rises to the surface and doesn't let me go and would not even give me a respite until I complete the job regardless of how many hours it takes.
In my possession currently there are sketch books and drawing blocks, along with color pencils, oil pastel, and crayon, worth MVR 750 (USD 48) as a contingency for the moment when a chord deep inside me may strike and I feel the hit and urge to draw. This doesn't happen often – sometimes may take a couple of years - and even then there is the issue - or rather the problem - of the muse.
This particular artwork features a Maldivian surfer who I am told is braving the waves of - take a deep breath - Laamu atoll. I saw the photo, which inspired this artwork I did, from a Maldives' tourism magazine called "Hotelier Maldives". The Maldivian writer who contributed to this magazine gifted me his copy because I told him I HAD to draw it because my Bipolar Disorder affected mind (https://hilath.blogspot.com/2023/11/why-bipolar-disorder-needs-to-be-taken.html) would never rest until I at least sketched a Black and White monochrome drawing even if it resembled a simple, minimalist artwork that seemed a careless effort of engaging in charcoal or pencil.
But I didn't insist to him he should part with it; I told him I can take a snapshot or scan the photo and return the magazine to him. But he was nice to gift it to me and told me no need to return it.
This particular photo appeared on the double spread marking World Ocean Day 2015.
And herein lies the somewhat amusing factor: I don't look for grand ideas. Even taking into consideration this photograph, there's nothing extraordinary or unusual about it, when looked at it from a superficial or surface level.
What uniqueness that captures my attention and notice are those, somewhat misleading, "little" things: as for this surfer, it was his sure-footed talent that wouldn't just let my imagination go. But then, surfing (and bodyboarding which is my thing:
https://hilath.blogspot.com/2023/11/i-still-miss-waves.html) seem to defy all laws of Physics, even gravity, although it doesn't: like riding a two-wheeled bicycle, there's the interplay of the balance of the human body's postures with the wave dynamics that prevents the surfer (or the bodyboarder) from falling into the wave.
As such, there was this simple little thing which grabbed my interest with regard to this photograph; this Maldivian surfer's sure-footed skill, his posture being testimony to that.
So I drew him. No music in the background. Just silence in my room. Some like background noise when they occupy themselves with something. But not me. I like and enjoy the silence.
I was what you would call a "soul" bodyboarder but just for once I took part in a bodyboarding competition in Maldives and emerged as the winner of my heat.
It gave me a personal lesson: no need to join the stressful professional circuit if your sole purpose in bodyboarding and surfing is enjoying intimate time with Nature and all those lovely new friends you get to make when you paddle out and wait for hours in the line-up.
But this is my personal opinion which may not apply to professional surfers and bodyboarders. So I wish good luck to all pros and soul surfers and bodyboarders, too.
As for my friend’s advice to get more engaged in drawing and painting again, I will tell her not to worry about it because I am already engaged in something similar – taking photographs with my Chinese manufactured smartphone Redmi 10 2022 whenever I am outdoors and posting them on my recently renewed LIFE IN PICTURES series.
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