Slow Food, Slow clothing... slow drawing?
Slow Food started out in the mid-1980s, when Carlo Petrini protested the planning of a MacDonalds near the Spanish Steps in Rome. I've been thinking about it a bit lately as I try to feed my family healthier home-cooked meals. The 'Slow Movement' has had some influence in a trend towards 'downshifting' (for those weathy enough to do so and still enjoy middle-class luxury, of course) but hasn't exactly been wide-ranging - most of us still seem to live in the "rat race". There is even a growing interest in 'Slow Clothes' - locally produced and handmade clothes - which I think has got to be a good thing.
So, motivated by the slow clothes idea (and the fact that all of the new-season knits in the department store are foreign-made sythetics) I went looking for a 'Learn to Knit' book in the library. (Stop laughing mum!) I noticed a common theme among the craft books: 'Quick and Easy', 'Make it Now!", 'Fast and Funky', 'Instant Pages to Create'... well, you get the idea. What happened to craft as a leisure activity - with the emphasis on leisurely, something done slowly, an enjoyable, constructive way to fill some time? Are we all so rushed now that we have to squeeze our leisure activities into five minute blocks? Or is it laziness, that like children we want instant results with no real effort? And if our craft activities are to be purposeful, then surely speed and shortcuts aren't the way to a well-made, serviceable object. We need a Slow Arts and Crafts movement!
Craftsmanship doesn't happen instantly. Skills are built one on another: you master one basic skill and that enables you to master another. After the coarse movements and broad concepts are assimilated, the fine movements and subtle ideas can be explored. You need to build your framework before you can decorate the façade.
So how can you 'slow' your art and craft?
- Get rid of 'Poser' and use a real model, even if they have clothes on.
- Use a flexicurve to draw that curve instead of CAD.
- Spend half an hour drawing the view.
- Instead of collaging a magazine image, draw your own, even if it isn't perfect.
- Use locally made products, recycle, and reuse.
- Turn off the tv and draw instead. Get your family involved. They might do craft, or read.
Comments
You are correct about taking time to learn the basics… too many art painters don’t know how to draw, they certainly don’t know what they are missing.
Have a good dinner!
The “Picture A Day” fad seems strange to me - what’s the rush? Or is it just the gimmick-ness of it? Retired adults often take an art class hoping that just by “adding water” they will get “instant art” then are very disappointed when they don’t have a hangable, sellable piece at the end of two or three hours! Hope Slow Art will catch on quick!OOps!
That’s an interesting point. I’d tried it, at the start of last year.. I think it lasted about a week, if that! Maybe it is a sign of commitment, that daily work ethic. I do think there is value in sketching regularly, but do we need to create a finished piece every day? I think there’s a media aura around artists like Picasso who have such a prodigious oeuvre; the reality for most artists is that they might produce a handful of masterpieces in a lifetime. But I don’t think there’s really a concept of the masterwork in contemporary art, so much.
This emphasis of volume over quality: a paper crafts magazine I read occasionally featured an artist who crafted a mixed-media purse every day for a year; some lovely objects, but why not produce just a few truly marvellous ones?
I’ll have to think about this in the context of drawing, and major works on paper.
Some art (two-minute landscape comes to mind) is meant to be fast. But the skill to do that too develops over time - months, years.
Do you merely want a product? Or do you wish to master the process? It just depends on the circle you retired among.
One day this week, I spent nine consecutive hours making eight preliminary sketches, doing washes repeatedly, to arrive at the effect I desired before even buying the big paper for the real effort. Patience - like a bulldog. Slow art for certain.
I think you have a great thought. Do we really “savor” food quickly or enjoy the fragrance of a flower quickly or enjoy a cold morning with a hot cup of coffee quickly? We are creatures meant to appreciate all good things. To appreciate is to contemplate over, etc. I’m at the near end of my life span, having done my rushing and have come to realize “what for?”. Slow down with art creation, too. Savor the blending of colors; the mystery of the mind’s ability to create!
Good advice, Char. I actually think that the metaphor that “life is a journey” is a fallacious one. It gives you the impression that you are heading somewhere, and for most of us, actual journeys are about getting there as fast as possible. We need a new metaphor that helps us to savour every moment.
All art should actually be ’slow’ in my opinion, and has become the slave of mass production or consumerism.
I am a musician and a writer, and these two art forms are also at the mercy of industry and people who want it ‘quickly.’ Take music for example. It takes great dedication and building up of skill to get good with music. However, because of industry, record labels sign the young bands (sometimes regardless of talent) and produce a good album (because of digital wizardry and the brains of a producer who is more experienced) but the band can’t produce the album live. They don’t have what it takes. And soon, they just break up, onto the next fad.
Even writing. It took JRR Tolkien years upon years to write a masterpiece like Lord of the Rings. Some of our modern writing pales in comparison to yesteryear, because guys need to get books out quickly for the publishing company to sell, sell, sell.
It’s a problem in all kinds of art. We need slow writing as well.