Memory and Drawing

There is an amazing phenomenon when drawing. We choose our subject. We make a mental notation of physical characteristics, oddities and, a judgment about the subject. Is the person fat, short, happy, sad, confident, or clueless? This is a quick process. Then we draw. The drawing can often be about something very different than a specific caricature. It can be about the joy of drawing a voluminous figure or a pose that we may find interesting or applicable in another creative product. What emerges however is indelibly linked to the original subject. It shows that our brains have already managed, even with the interference of our own agendas, to capture an essence of the subject. It has led me to think about the remarkable speed of the brain and hand. Training speeds this connection, of that I have not doubt, but beyond that, I wonder about the memory trace that our drawings hold. It has been said that we live on beyond death until the last person, known or unknown, mutters our names. I wonder about the persistence of the people in our drawings.