Bobber

Drawing on the white board seems to be related to what I was talking about in my last post; about loosing or destroying a piece of work.  Ultimately it feels like the work is about, and for people, and it’s physicality should be unimportant, but I also like having or referring back to physical things, to have a little sense of solidity in my life.  I think that is part of the reason I like painting so much, a painting can feel so solid and still, it’s something I can take my time with, and try to absorb.  That said, I also like how fragile a drawing on the white board is, how it can vanish so easily (wet paint has similar properties).  It is symbolic of the fleeting nature of life; things that have meaning for us can suddenly disappear and we have to find ways to cope with this.  I find it interesting, at work, how it’s almost become an unwritten rule that I make the drawings, so I am also the one who erases them.  People seem to find value in the drawing itself, and if they need to leave a note, tend to fit it around what’s been drawn.  It reminds me of a wall of graffiti where the artists seem to have been aware of each others space and respectful of the other things people have drawn.  Eventually, I imagine those graffiti drawings do get covered over, but I like to think about how a bunch of people come together at different times and create an emerging composition.  That doesn’t really happen on the white board, it just gets wiped clean.  There is the loss in that, but then the potential for a fresh start and new ideas.