Categories
Aesthetics

Drawing People

There’s the objection to drawing people that you cannot know what another person is thinking or doing, so seeking to represent them is misrepresentation, projection, falsehood. For me, drawing people is the opposite of this. People are unknowable, you have to admit this to draw them, you admit this by drawing them. Drawing them is dealing with the unknowable. There’s a sense of wonder in all this, you can’t be arrogant, there’s no possibility of divine revelation underwriting it.
What am I drawing when I’m drawing people? I don’t know. But I wish that I could.