Final Drawing, George Rogers Park

So I didn’t even manage a week of posts! Knowing myself, and my life, this is neither surprising nor worrying; it is just going to happen. So instead of (more) navel gazing, how about I just go ahead and tell you what I did yesterday instead?

I drew.

Yesterday was the penultimate meeting of my Drawing 131A class at Portland Community College. It is also the first credit class I have taken since the 90’s! I have a lot to say about my goals, the class, and drawing, but since those are enough to fill their own blog post in and of itself you will just have to be patient. And to think, this whole time you were waiting for it and didn’t even know! Spooky.

So yesterday our class met at George Rogers Park in Lake Oswego. We had from 9:00am, more or less, to 2:30pm to create a final project. We could use any medium, any subject matter, and any form; i.e., Representational, Non-representational, or Abstract. I did an abstract piece using only pastels. Abstract in that it looks like actual things (contrasted with Non-representational) and the things are not realistically portrayed (as opposed to Representational). The tower in the river is actually the remaining structure of a 19th century iron forge that still occupies its plot. Of course I chose to place it smack dab in the Willamette River, which is only a stones throw away. (Assuming you remembered to equip your sling of course- but I digress.) There are also figures in the water, apparently praying to the stone keep, whilst ignoring the largish tree behind them. The inspiration for them was a group of older women who were exercising on the lawn in front of the iron foundry as I drew it. It was cool watching them actually. They would do a lot of stretching and then randomly harmonize “Ah’s.”

Metaphorically it could well represent man’s worship of technology and development at the sacrifice of nature. For even as the tower prospers, the tree falters. Of course, in fairness to these little uniformly garbed figures, I did place the tree in the middle of the Willamette as well. So, I can’t really fault the figures then if their  inclinations towards their Creator is more WTF than PTL, and if they’d rather focus on the thing that (slightly) more belongs in a river. If you happen to see any other metaphors, symbolism, or deep philosophical resonations within the piece, please let me know! I would love to share them with the class 🙂

Finally, I am both very pleased and very disappointed in the piece. I am pleased because this is the end result of 10 weeks of class. I have learned a lot, progressed significantly, and am unlocking new areas of my creativity. I am just starting out, so it makes sense that what appears on the page is not going to match what is in my head. I’m disappointed because even though I know all the above to be true about my limited skills, I am still struggling to accept it in myself.

Perhaps there’s a metaphor about that in there too?

Both the text and the image of my drawing are posted under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial license.