Mark-making and 'the groove'
Playing with different mediums and visual tactilities to express
Sketchbooks can offer a space to let my marks loose most times without a plan, and they also become a tool to plan work which I ends up giving physical form to like a silk scarf, a sticker set or art prints.
Sketchbook traditionally is a bound book, which gives a continuity and linearity to the collective work but we are more than welcome to break the bounds of it.
I often work with loose sheets of paper and paste all sorts of knick-knacks in my sketchbook/diary or shall I call it 'memory keeper'.
A drawing becomes a record of the time, actual and metaphorical place I was at, and feeling which I went through at that particular period or instance of time.
They are spaces for reflection, to express what had been keeping my mind chattered. By being able to pour it out, its becomes a form of therapy many of us partake in. I feel invigorated after making a drawing for myself.
And yet, it can be daunting. And scary, to pick up the brushes and tools after a break.
What I feel is daunting - is the expectation of creating a masterwork, the expectation feels heavy somehow because we feel drawing is worth doing only if it is any good.
But none of my good drawings came out of wanting to draw good. They came out of a craving to express, to release and to do it ever so lightly. Without burdening my mark making with the expectation of it being a masterpiece. I let it be its own thing, and in turn it sometimes rewards me.
But the reward is the act of making itself.
I can't quote Lynda Barry enough. She said:
“The groove is so mysterious. We're born with it and we lose it and the world seems to split apart before our eyes into stupid and cool. When we get it back, the world unifies around us, and both stupid and cool fall away.
I am grateful to those who are keepers of the groove. The babies and the grandmas who hang on to it and help us remember when we forget that any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all.”
May we keep grooving and may the groove keeps us!
The regular social media platforms are seeing a massive shift given how the people running it have been behaving (I am looking at you Musk Melon and Zuck Uncle) and their problematic politics is worrying. I also discovered that Substack is no good either.
Read about it here:
https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/substack-announcement-bari-weiss-free-press
It can seem daunting to begin from scratch but I am seeing it as an opportunity to start on a fresh page of a notebook.
After several years of putting out all of my work and content (I don’t like this word) out online for everyone to access, I have decided that I would like to nurture a kinder, and more exclusive warm space which in turn can help me sustain my practice as a independent creative in the current economy. I would like to send you my art through exclusive posts, emails, and parcels via Patreon.
There I offer exclusive peek into my process, discuss intentions, ideas, and inspirations.
It would mean the world if you consider subscribing to my Patreon <3
Thank you,
Reshu
Link to my Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/ReshuSingh