Drawings by George Woolley
How These Drawings Evolved
I've been working with simple shapes constructed out of straight and curved lines since at least 1975.
At first the shapes were primarily pieces of mobiles. After a while a whole corner of my living room was filled with these mobiles, some of them reaching almost to the floor. They formed a separate world of mobile beings and gave meaning to each other. For many of them the central shape was either a diamond or an oval, although some of them were braids as much as four feet long. Many of these shapes were either all curves or all straight lines, but some of them were a combination of both.
As time passed I began to focus more and more on drawings. At first the shapes of the drawings were similar to those in the mobiles. In time other shapes began to appear. One shape was a star constructed of two interlocking roughly equalateral triangles. After a while this was mostly replaced by a star constructed of two interlocking roughly square shapes. A curved shape that reoccurred was a brade that curved around like a snake.
I saw these shapes as beings of some kind. And I saw the bringing together of straight and curved lines as a resolution of apparent opposites. I interpret the shapes whose framework is primarily linear as male, and those whose framework is primarily curved as female.
A theme that evolved was an eight sided star shape with a brade shape looping through or around it. In many cases the stars had tiny brades within them and the brades had tiny stars within them. And in some cases the tiny shapes had even tinier shapes within them of the opposite kind.
When many of these drawings are placed together on a wall or on the floor, like the mobiles they form a community of shapes and give meaning to each other.
The Drawings and Timelessness
The better of these drawings are comfortable and ordinary. They resolve the simple curved and linear forces within them, thereby helping me (and perhaps others) to resolve similar forces within myself. They are relaxed and loose, free and uncalculated, for even though many of the shapes are familiar, they are not forced into a rigid mold. The drawings are not made to impress anyone. I experience them as having a timeless sense about them, as if they could have been drawn a thousand years ago or some time in the distant future.
Why I Draw these Shapes
I draw these drawings because they give me a sense of peace. I feel more whole when I draw them. I am drawn to their ordinariness and to the sense that anyone could do something similar. No great expertise in drawing is needed, just being quiet and connected with oneself.
They reveal that the source of art is not a certain technology, but rather ourselves.
Copyright 1997, 1998 George Woolley