The Element of Time

Above is a series of three drawings by a student, Eileen Gillespie, which began with a focus on the subject of interior space.  You can click on it to enlarge. She started with an 18" x 24" charcoal drawing of a window frame inside her apartment depicted with traditional perspective (not pictured).  However, very quickly she began to distort interior spaces with sharp compositions comprised of large shapes, and also increased the scale of her work.  Those shown above are roughly 44" x 108". As the complexity of the spaces increased, the drawing's structural physicality became more pronounced. Inevitably, viewers are compelled to navigate unusual, shifting perspective constructions, as they are pushed around or even expelled from the drawing and forced to search for a suitable reentry point.  

Gillespie makes clear that for her architectural mayhem functions as a powerful visual metaphor for complexity, confusion, and frustration. Further, these unpopulated dreamscapes with strange and alienating presences convey a disconcerting emptiness.

Clearly, Gillespie's scale is beyond what would be expected for a six week project, but still seeing a series such as this one may provide inspiration for any of you to consider dealing with interior spaces.   

We've had five meetings so far this semester, essentially 1/3 of the session completed.  After the Memorial Day break, we'll have two more sessions before our first critique, which has yet to take a definite form. So here a few questions to consider at the stage of your series development:

Are enough time and commitment being put into the work? Considering that the expectation was for seven hours per week and that the project constitutes 30% of final grades.

Is a clear direction emerging, or do you sense several different possible directions? If several, what are they? Which one makes the most sense to you and why?

Does the size of the work and the media being used seem to be working with the ideas?

And as we get closer to critique, please consider:

Are there signs of a breakthrough or are surprising new directions emerging? Are these good surprises (positive potential for development) or bad surprises (unforeseen problems or contradictions)?

Is the work invigorating, that is, does it excite you? Do you feel fully engaged with it? Would you rather be working on your series drawing than just about anything else? Does the work interest other people?

There will be other questions posed along the way toward the final critique.

Have a good and productive break, see you Tuesday.