Day 8. Look what I found!
Focusing our attention, with the help of Sister Corita and her finder
Hello incredible 30 Day Drawers,
It’s day eight. You have drawn for ten minutes for eight days in a row. A ROW. I hope you are feeling inspired, creatively activated, and proud your darn artist self: from your inner child all the way to your wise inner elder. Every part of you is doing great.
Before we kick off, I want to send love to all our friends in the Los Angeles area who are impacted by the terrible fires. Our hearts are with you.
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In yesterday’s lesson we learned about “abstracting the everyday” with Ellsworth Kelly, and experimented with a minimal approach to drawing. I spent some time in the community chat your artwork is GORGEOUS! Superb and surprising in their simplicity. Each one packs a visual punch.
I also noticed several people in the chat said they had a hard time deciding what to draw. I agree. It’s hard to focus on just one subject when we are always surrounded by so much stuff clamoring for our attention. That’s modern life, and something we all struggle with. And it’s also why many of us love to draw. It’s like meditation. It slows us down, quiets our minds, helps us be in the present. It also helps us see the world around us and make decisions. Skills we could all cultivate in drawing - and in life.
This made me realize that what we really needed to do was to review one of my favorite lessons today. This is something that I think will set us up for success for the rest of the 30 days, not to mention our lives as artists. So, friends, at the last minute I decided to throwing out the lesson I had planned for today (!!) and instead I give you… (Drum roll…….)
Looking at the world one piece at a time - with Sister Corita!
If you have been drawing with me for more than a minute, you’ve probably heard me talk about artist, educator and radical nun Sister Corita Kent before (and the awesome folks at the Corita Art Center - which opens in LA later this year.) Maybe you’ve even seen me hold up one of these Corita-inspired things called a “finder”:
Sister Corita was the centerpiece of a DrawTogether kids’ show episode on drawing the outside world, as well as an awesome DT podcast episode that’s fun for all ages. I love Sister Corita and her artwork for so many reasons: how she looked at the world, how she considered teaching to be both an art practice and a political act, and how she used art as a tool to promote connection and social justice.
Art Department Rules
An artist, nun, and lifelong educator, Sister Corita taught art at Immaculate Heart College in the 60s in Los Angeles, and became known for her vibrant, influential pop-art screen-prints that combined text and images to powerful effect. Unlike her pop art peers (think Warhol and Lichtenstein), she had a strong socially-engaged voice and didn’t shy away from “mistakes”, including drips and smears in her finished pieces. While others artists in her time focused on the machine, she put her attention on humanity - in her art, and in her classroom. You may also remember those wonderful Art Department RULES that hung in her classroom at Immaculate Heart College.
Consider everything an experiment. - Sister Corita
Corita plucked imagery and text from all around her - advertisements, magazines, logos, even bread packaging - and reframed it (literally), using color and composition to help us all consider these things we’d normally overlook in a whole new light.
She was radical in all sorts of ways and used art as a powerful voice, protesting the Vietnam war and human suffering through her art. She eventually split from the church to dedicated herself wholly to her art. But her underlying values, that art is a form of engagement and activism, remained strong until she passed in 1986.
Sister Corita practiced the art of paying attention. In a world where so much is clamoring for our attention, we often feel overwhelmed and unable to slow down, look closely, and see the beauty that is all around us. She worked hard to keep her gaze fixed on a hopeful future, and her hands busy creating it. And she gave others the opportunity to do the same.
The Finder
Sister Corita helped teach her students to look closely at the world using something she called a FINDER.
“A tool for looking is a finder. This is a device which does the same thing as the camera lens or viewfinder. It helps take things out of context, allows us to see for the sake of seeing, and enhances our quick-looking and decision-making skills.”
- Sister Corita
While frames have been used to create composition for thousands of years, Sister Corita really popularized the use of a “finder” in the 60’s. A finder is basically a piece of paper with a rectangular window that helps focus our attention on the world “one piece at a time” (Sister Corita’s words) - and also just help us pay attention to the visual world in general. In our hectic day to day lives we probably never notice little things like an old car’s bumper. Or the edge of a wooden chair. Or someone’s painted fingernails. We’re so overwhelmed that we literally do not see things.
But when we slow down, narrow our focus, and look at the world one piece at a time - when we give the world our attention - we begin to actually see what’s in front of us, and start to appreciate all the wonder and beauty there is around us. Drawing is one of the best ways to do this. And a finder can help.
As we draw the object we’ve caught in our finder, maybe we notice that car bumper has a scratch - and it’s been painted back over with black paint. What’s the story there? The edge of the chair is well-worn - and is there some gum stuck under there?? Who put it there? And the painted fingernails seem freshly painted - oooo - someone is putting in some effort. But there is a big smudge across one! Imagine the story behind that smudge...
Drawing is looking, and looking is loving. - DrawTogether Motto
Through drawing something we notice all its details, complexity and nuance. It becomes interesting, fascinating even. Because behind everything little detail we notice is a story. And once we know its stories, we can’t help but care.
We have spent a week building up our internal attention muscles: learning to use drawing to slow down, process our feelings, and feel more connected to our body, breath and feel more present.
Next we are going to start to shift into our external attention muscles. In a couple days we are start to learn how to SEE. Let’s prepare for Part 2 today by looking at the world ONE PIECE AT A TIME.
