Capturing Energy

I currently practice life drawing once per week.

The human body is so cool because, even in stillness, we are never 100% motionless. Our heart is pumping the blood that runs through our veins, our diaphragm expands and contracts to facilitate breath, our muscles are firing to hold us in position. Our stomach is digesting, our cells are replicating and dying. Everything must continue to function even when we try to be still.

Capturing that essence is a priority for me. I use energetic lines in these drawings, because truly, I care less about the accuracy of the shape and more about the energy of the human inside that body.

“We’re all just big bags of water” - Marilyn James, Matriarch of the Autonomous Sinixt

I love this quote because it’s true! And if you feel called, you can learn more about Marilyn James here. We are big bags of water with complex thoughts and feelings, trying to move through the world, learning, and living and experiencing energy. We know that everything is energy. Our hearts radiate vibrations well beyond our bodies, and everything from our thoughts and feelings to our bodily functions are made of energy. Capturing this energy can be about dance, rhythm, movement in all its forms and expressions.

While drawing, I try to catch expressions of feelings, small movements and the energy of the model. It’s so different from painting because, when I paint, I am creating peace and calm because that’s what I need most in my life. However, life drawing is all about expressing and expending the energy that I have inside me.

Expending Energy

One part I love about life drawing is that I get to celebrate other people’s bodies. There is so much diversity in the body, from skeletons, muscles and fat on the inside to the length of someone’s hair or toes on the outside. I love noticing those little details - they vary so much and they are all beautiful. I create dancers out of the models and make them move across the page. I try to imagine what goes on inside the body to create the shapes that the models pose in. 

How much effort are they putting into their pose? 

Are they comfortable? 

Are they too hot or too cold?

Can they breathe? 

Do they have an itch that they can’t scratch?

When we have a lot of energy, we need to have somewhere to send it. So, what do we do when we don’t have an outlet? Or when our preferred outlet isn’t accessible? All of that energy continues to be stored until it can shift into something else.

I am very active. I think fast, I talk fast, and I love to move. My body can’t always support the activity that I like to do, so life drawing has become an outlet for that energy. When I can’t run or do aerobics, this is how I let it all out.

Life drawing will continue to be an integral part of my practice.