Last Thursday and Friday were spent at the Simon Cancer Center as we went through Ken’s third round of chemo. This is a journey…we just don’t know yet how it will end. I always use this time to explore – this time I am still trying to get my arms around automatic drawing and I am struggling. I have used the internet to try to understand the definition and have used YouTube to watch artists creating using automatic drawing. Some of these are clearly NOT automatic drawing. Anyway on October 7th, 8th, and 9th I created automatic drawings. I think they got more exciting as I created each new piece of work.

Automatic Drawing - October 8, 2011

Automatic Drawing Oct 7, 2011
On October 7th I started with a spiral shape and went from there. I have trouble moving away from my first shape so as I shifted I used derivatives of a spiral – ovals, circles and dots…in this case pretty ho-hum!
On October 8th, I started by drawing some intersecting lines and then began adding trapezoidal shapes. This did not fire my imagination so I began thinking about the boomerang shapes on 1950’s tabletops. I drew kidney- bean shaped amoeba like shapes and then embellished with circles and dots. ..a little better.
On Sunday, October 9th I watched several videos on YouTube, and while I don’t believe I had a break through in understanding, I was able to draw a swirling homage to nature. Not sure if it is automatic drawing but it is very pleasant to view.

Automatic Drawing - October 9, 2011
I still wonder…how is automatic drawing different from doodling?