Recognize and Remember

There are two things that I want to stress in working with models, and I think that both are important. I want to recognize people when I have seen them before, and I want to remember them between sessions where they model.

The means that I have to find characteristics that bring them to my mind
when I am not actually seeing them. Sarah has a very beautiful smile,
for example, and I did not see it in her last week until the moment when
Beth and I left the studio, so I missed it for the whole time I was
working. It was absent in all of my drawing, and it needed to be
there—because I am sure it is always in Sarah, shining, for people to
find. I know that I want to use her smile in the modeling workshop that
I have proposed to The Art Space, if she decides to come, and I know
just how I want to use it, if that is alright with her. For each
person, it is our special characteristic that makes us who we are for
each other; it is these characteristics that we need to guide us in our
work, so that “who I am” means more, both to me and to other people,
than “what I am” does. NOTE: This writing refers to open workshops
sessions in Life Drawing at The Art Space in Raleigh, NC in 2010.

6/07/2010