1000 Woodcuts: Sketching right along...

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Sketching right along...

Another day, another doodle

The Peace Puzzle: Current project open for enrollment!

http://1000woodcuts.blogspot.com/p/peace-puzzle.html

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Go to: http://tinyurl.com/peacepuzzle

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I spent long days and nights thinking about our theme and came up with a few elements that I thougth essential to peace. I firmly believe peace is within us all and yet with so much chaos going on in the world, sometimes through the pains in life, peace is tough to bring out...takes a conscious effort, a collective effort...hey! much like our puzzle print!

The main dictum about these sketches is that they have to be on the graphic side of drawing, which is difficult for me because most of the time I enjoy drawing detail and realism. To achieve the simplicity, I picture myself wielding a 12 foot brush full of ink over my driveway and only have one chance to get it right! Funny how that works for me.

Building the sketch

This is more or less how the idea emerged, step by step. First I resized the drawing to be proportional to 90 wide by 44 high inches (228 x 112 cm), which is more or less what I'm hoping the size of the beast will be if we do a six-panel print.
Then, layer by layer, thought by thought, I drew and erased until I grew tired of sitting and it was time for a loooong walk!

I feel we need a light to see, to show us where and how to find our peace. So I picked the sun, easy to do here in the desert, to shine on our lives.

light

Second we need an anchor, something or somewhere or someone where we can always take refuge. For this I picked nature, in the form of mother earth, in the form of love, where I always go when the mind is wild or the heart is hurt so I can recover my smile. Any time I depict nature, my mountains become loving figures and my trees often caress with their limbs.

earthlove

I chose to have a more or less universal symbol of peace (or two) in the dove and branch. Doves, birds, flying free, a symbol of freedom from the chains of anger and hatred. The branch, also nature, given in a gesture of togetherness, of wishing happiness and peace for others, of extending a limb of friendship.

nature

freedom

A symbol of unification and impermanence, the river signifies how everything in life comes and goes, we never step into the same river twice. Water, healing in moving, washing everything clean and new every minute of every day. We are water, our blood from suffering, sweat of toiling, and tears of sorrow and of joy are all water. Water unites us, intertwines our lives.

riverlife

That's what there is so far! I may change a few things yet! It's looking pretty peaceful...