I know I am posting late on this, but here I go. When
prompted to draw my “go-to” childhood drawing, I went immediately to the eye,
which was drawn everywhere in my middle school notebooks. It was interesting to
hear in the class that this is a very common image for young people to cling
to. For me it was definitely about the idea of mastery – I learned how to draw
an eye, felt somewhat capable in doing so, and kept doing it – I liked the
results. I am pretty sure I was taught by some friends who were taking drawing
classes outside of school. I am pretty sure I mostly drew in pen and pencil
(not colors) because I was doodling in class, but because we had colors for the
exercise I used them. Using the colors brought up memories of trying to draw my
eyes with accurate colors at some point back there, and remembering noticing
the details of the colors of my eyes, eyelids, eyelashes etc. at some point in
my life. These were not painful mirror memories of scrutiny but more benign
mirror memories of just detailed noticing. Again, it is notable how much can
emerge from this one simple prompt/assignment.
I am currently at a macro placement, and it is great but I am a little
bummed that I don’t have the current opportunity to try these activities out!
I really liked your drawing, and it was like deja vu to see it. Drawing eyes was also a "go to" drawing when I was young. It was very surprising to me to learn that this was a common drawing for others in the class as well. I agree with you that this assignment was so simple and unsuspecting, but drew out a lot of old memories from our younger selves.
ReplyDeleteDrawing eyes was also one of go-tos! It's so interesting that so many of us had so many of the same go-to doodles. I wonder, what it is about these things that make them drawing staples throughout adolescence? I also wonder if it's Cultural? Generational? Or if the same types of go to drawings pop up across generations and across cultures.
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