CapeConversation

We met on the 13th July, to … draw.

About 12 adults and 4 under 10’s gathered on a cold but sunny Cape morning. Each person was given an A1 sheet (that’s 8 A4’s) and some charcoal sticks. Theresa, facilitating and DJing, played several varied pieces of music, ranging from The William Tell overture to Dead Can Dance. We were asked to respond by “taking the charcoal for a walk”. Various screeches and shrieks ensued, (as well as many a black hand), as everyone threw themselves into the liturgy.

The music created varied stylistic responses, ranging between small, introspective points of focus to big, sweeping gestures, from defined, controlled doodles to wild abandoned slashes. After about half an hour we were the asked to make connections in our work – to reconcile the moods and the marks into something more unified.

The next stage involved “mental sorbet”: lying down and clearing out our overworked minds. We were then asked to look at each other’s charcoal canvasses for evidence of an emerging figure: face, body, or just a suggestion of personality. We then were given paint, one colour only, which we could mix with as much water as we desired. We were told to enhance the figure which had been identified with as much or as little of the colour as we wanted.

Next step was to describe the personage, giving them a name, together with about 15 other defining details, age, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, interests and concerns.

Finally we introduced our creations to the group. It was suggested that if we can’t get anyone to join us, we’ll just make them up. And as usual, Theresa had a sting in the tail. We were asked if we could see that person belonging in our midst. How far were we prepared to go to include others?

There was no further discussion – filthy, sooty and enlivened, we were left with that thought.

PS all contributions for art materials welcome.