Macro-Gratitude
How art helps us see, appreciate, and reconstruct the big picture
Hello GUT friends. So happy you are here.
We are still here, together.
And I don’t know about you, but I deeply need this “Drawing Gratitude” series we’re in the middle of. With daily reminders of an incoming tidal wave, taking a creative deep breath to pause, reflect, look closely and literally draw some gratitude from/for the world around us is the best way I know to fill our tanks. We are literally building our muscles for the future.
And lucky for us, Thanksgiving in the United States offers us a perfect opportunity to practice gratitude - not to mention patience and grace (and leaving the room when we need to!) Existing challenges within families may be heightened this year. I’m sure a lot of us will experience some triggering from “that person” at the table. (Remember, “that person” is likely us for others!) If/when our blood begins to boil, try to pause, drop into your bodies, take a deep breath, and remember how you feel when you draw - freely and boldly - without concern for other’s opinion or cares. Not when you are being the “best” you, but the “Most” you. Hold onto that feeling. Drawing is a practice - and not just on paper. It’s for life. These are the moments we've been practicing for.
(Y’all realize I’m actually pep-talking myself here, right? YOU CAN DO IT.)
Alright, let’s keep the drawing gratitude practice going.
Last week, we reflected on “micro gratitudes” - all the so-small-we-forget-about-them things that deserve our gratitude. I drew a tribute to most essential object these days: my reading glasses, and the small but pwerful reciprocal gift of flowers (above.) There were SO MANY wonderful micro-gratitude drawings in the chat. Check them out and share yours if you haven’t already.
This week, we’re putting away the microscope and bringing out the telescope. We’re moving from micro-gratitude to macro-gratitude. It’s all about perspective.
Macro-Gratitude
My big picture gratitudes: I’m grateful for the breeze that sweeps fresh air into my freeway-approximate Oakland neighborhood, and the sun shining outside today, and even the atmospheric river that descended on Northern California that will hopefully keep future wildfires at bay. I’m grateful for a subway ride (or BART as we call it here) and how many people, decisions, hard work went into literally burrowing routes through the earth so we can move all around the bay without cars. I’m grateful for every head of lettuce and onion and mushroom at the farmers market and all the hard work of nature and humans it took to get there! I am grateful for the watercolor paint I use, and the pencil which is a phenomenon of human invention! I am grateful for water flowing freely from my faucet this morning. And pollination! Life! The bees. THE BEES.
These are mega-miracles made possible by a million, often invisible mini-motions all working together.
What about you? What is something larger than yourself that you are grateful for? Something that is connected to a million other things?
Alright, let’s see how this kind of macro-appreciation and exploration and interpretation of the work shows up in ART. Let's start with the classic…
Van Gogh: Impasto and Pointillism
Van Gogh was a master of capturing the macro with micro. The macro was the natural world that so fascinated and entranced him. The micro was his brushstrokes. Each one was a little homage to the greater whole.
Van Gogh is one of many artists who use a technique called “impasto” - a technique where an artist uses brush or a pallet knife to lay down thick strokes of paint - so thick you can feel the paint and process with your eyes. You can really see each individual stroke that creates the whole.
Below is an example of Van Gogh’s impasto paintings where the subject is broken down into thick swaths of paint. Our eyes bring them together into a cohesive whole - in this case, a wheat field, road and sky, and the paintings vibrates with motion and energy, even tho the paint is static and dry on the canvas.
Van Gogh is also known for his use of the technique Pointillism. That is a technique used often, even exclusively, by artists like Seurat (you are probably familiar with his painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte) but Van Gogh used it sparingly, and only to achieve his desired effect in certain paintings, like this one below:
Can you tell the difference between his impasto painting and this pointillism one above? A lot of it is about scale and color. Pointillism uses small, micro brushstrokes of different colors. Whe our eyes take them in all at once, our brains combine them and give the impression of an overall color scheme, lights and darks.. and overall macro experience.
Both pointillism and impasto create visual tension: the colors and brushstrokes bounce off one another creating an energetic, vibrating whole. I can’t help but be mesmerized by both impasto and pointillism. Impasto inspires me to get loose, free up my eyes and hands, and appreciate each moment of the bigger picture. Pointillism? Honestly, it just stresses me out.
Contemporary Artists Taking a Macro View
Many artists working today push abstraction and perception of a subject or idea even further. They take a broad, multi-dimensional, long distance macro view. One example of this is a favorite artist of mine: the remarkable Julie Mehretu.
Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu’s paintings are monumental in sense and in scale. They contain so much SPACE - and make me feel like I’m seeing the details and complexities of a place, a system, a whole universe. Zoom in on that piece above. It’s amazing. In “Stadia I”, she plays with signs and symbols of games and power (the micro) and reconfigures them into a hectic system that gestures towards the whole big system (macro. ) The result is overwhelming, mind-bending and captures real force. Whew.
David Hockney
I’ve talked a lot about David Hockney’s drawings and paintings here at the Grown-Ups Table, but I’m not sure I’ve shared some of my favorite work of his: the photo collages.
For a couple years in the early 80s, Hockney became obsessed with photography and spent nearly all his time experimenting with what the medium could do. In that time, he created over 350 works. Each of them uses the camera to break down a subject of scene into multiple images - looking from different angles, and over time - and then reassembles them to create a whole. It helped him think about HOW we see, not just what we see, and how we represent that.
This is a great example of how the macro is comprised of the micro. How TIME and PERSPECTIVE play a role in this. Consider this in your own drawing: How can you bring in new perspectives - a more macro view - on a single subject?
Charles Gaines
Before he was a very big deal in the art world, Charles Gaines was a professor of mine at Art Center. I am lucky to have had one class with him. He left an indelible mark on me, in the best possible way.
Charles creates and plays with systems to make sense of the world around us, and “propose concepts and ideas.” In a series of giant paintings of palm trees he combines photography, drawing and a numbering system to represent the huge plants (and so much more.) They are interesting to look at, but more, they make me think about how we see, and how we represent what we see and why. And they make me want to start creating micro-to-macro systems myself.
Take a look. I’m going to show you the finished piece (it’s huge), then zoom in 2x.
Looks kind of like pointillism, right?? Except total different. It’s almost like Charles removed the artist’s subjectivity and replaced his artists decisions with a system he created. A very different idea and result. (This reminds me of our exploration into CHANCE and assigning colors and numbers like Ellsworth Kelly did, remember that?)
Look, I’ll be honest. Some days I don’t want to be responsible for making decisions. Not about work, not about dinner, not even about what color to choose next. Sometimes I’d rather color by numbers. At the same time, I never want to do what anyone tells me to do. So I love the idea of creating my own systems - rules to follow, and seeing what emerges with those constraints. Breaking a macro thing down into small micro things using a system like Charles Gaines does with his Palm Tree series is an inspiring example of that.
Alright. i’ve filled your head with enough fun micro to macro examples. Now it’s our turn. Let’s practice some macro gratitude ourselves.