No history, or discussion, about drawing, would be
complete, without some mention of Van Gogh.
As a way to start this text, this essay, his
work is perfect. The line, the hand, the evidence
of the man. The humanity, expression, mark -
making. The emotion, tenderness, subtlety, shown
in his work.

Some of this experience comes from the Royal
Academy show in London in 2010, I saw, and
felt his work, properly, experienced, the
resonance, and connection, that can come, from
the artists hand.
The immediacy, vibrancy, and contact.
And the experience. He is popular, his work is
popular - why? Because of the line, the colour?
He is the archetypal artist - the myth of
the artist - the tortured soul, the tragic
artist, the story that surrounds the work, and
how it is experienced, understood. Or - experienced,
and misunderstood. Story, and understanding. The
felt.
My experience, is that it was felt, he, can be
felt.

The renaissance artists, in particular, the
collection at the National Gallery in London -
I worked there as a student - has the same effect
on me.
The drawings, drawn marks, unchanged, in process,
beyond time, fashion, comprehension. Still, in those
works, the artist is present, evident. The process
of drawing is unchanged. Standing in front of that
work. The line, the emotional impact, the story of the
work, the artist, exists - in a profound, felt way,
the history, and years between, vanish.
There is a freshness. The practice of drawing, is
relatively unchanged, from the renaissance artists
to now. The impact - the paintings are considered,
for me, I don't engage, or - the engagement, the
contact, is different (learning, learned, rather
than felt.)

In Berger on Drawing [2], John Berger talks about
work that reveals too much. Perhaps, like Van
Gogh, this is where the story - 'story', of the
artist kicks in. What Berger says, is that the
audience have to not understand, in order to
engage, be able to make contact with the
work - and perhaps, each other. The surround.

Life Drawing -
Berger also points out, that drawing from a nude
model, is called 'life drawing' - drawing life,
drawing from life. A person - drawing the existence,
of a body, soul, feeling, nuance. The person,
as living, lived.

Berger is talking about Picasso here, his series
of drawings. I began to think of Egon Shiele,
Hockney, Beardsley, and Salt Aire in Yorkshire,
where Hockney's works can be seen in the
Mill exhibition spaces [2]

The way that Berger writes, is incredibly
inspiring. I have spent two days with his book
this week. He is real, depth, and insight, from
a personal, felt, and found, point of view. Real-
understanding, care, authority, in knowing,
through love. Referencing others, and drawing
upon his own experiences.
In my notes, I have written - (later.) - do.
I'm not sure what this will mean. My own
experiences, doing, allowing my writing, to come
from my-self.

I have also written a word that he uses -
duende.

I looked it up - I have the oxford dictionary
on my old phone. Instead, the word - denude
came up.

denude
strip of covering, make bare.
(duende.)
> Berger

The series, the use of the sequence, leads to Hogarth.
Rake's progress - from Picasso, drawing in sequence,
in time, a series. Hogarth, telling a story. An
event, told in frames.

And, the David Hockney versions

Storytelling, sequence. How the drawn, becomes time.
Events, passing, linear, the inclusion of narrative,
across multiple images. The frame.
The Hockney works re-tell the story. Bring
the works into the present day, in content,
style, and form. The work, has an immediacy,
an impact. Visually strong, striking, loved, raw.
The expression of the hand, the line.

Rake's Progress Images.
Hogarth

Rake's - Credit

Poetry.

The idea, of the poetic - it is evident, and
mysterious, in all visual forms. Starts, stops,
rhythm, structure - breaks, the form, pulse,
punctuation. And - the [unreadable], the tone, the
feeling, how does this exist, and relate to
drawing practice?

Dante - in the publication of the Divine Comedy,
uses the visual, diagrammatic, visually, to
describe the realms, the descension into hell.

It's compelling - his literary world - visualised.
The use of drawing, to present his literary world.

I love this work. In 2009, I made a response to
the very opening of the work, using images
drawn from photographs - taken on Ilkley Moor
earlier that year.

untitled from Sara Nesteruk on Vimeo.

The divine Comedy

Untitled, Sara Nesteruk
2009

The Divine Comedy

My idea about the work, and the editing, was to
take the images, and to produce something like a
fragment, or echo. Single frames, and black.
A stain, memory. A stain on the Retina, is how I
described in - it, at the time. The memory.
The memory of the image, somehow, being stronger,
and more lasting, in it's absence, and in the
darkness - the blackness, after the event.

Sebastian Buerkner does, and explores this, in
his work - frame erasure.

Fleeting, lost, fragments. The discomfort, unity.
The power, of the single image in time, the frame.
Sequence. Hogarth, on screen, in time, speeded
up, to a fragment of a second.

My notes for this are better - raw. I've written.

Exploring the frame. A glimpse, fragment, a point in time.
Stain on the retina. A memory. Fleeting lost.

My own - moment - M, as Bourriaud speaks of it,
in Relational Aesthetics. A point in time, document,
point of contact with the ideas, the work. [3]

WWF Earth Hour 2011 from JB3 Creative on Vimeo.

The scale was striking - and the difference in
scale, striking. Ted Hughes, his poems, the
raw, immediate, profound, and felt effect they
had on me. The initial drawings, before I made
the loops, were done in pen and ink, from life,
crows in Finsbury park, feathers, brushes,
large scale drawings, on A3-A2-A1 paper,
converted in the studio. (Elephant and Castle.)

The notes I've written, end this - with 'Happy'
And then, in contrast - detail the audio
used in my crow piece.
It's the introduction from a piece of work by
Orchestral Manouevres in the dark. In the
music, pounding, pending, sometimes, the images
hit the beat, sometimes they don't. The
structure was created first. There's a
certain satisfaction, when the two meet, and a
discomfort, or ill-ease, when they don't,
when they miss each other.

I have another piece of work to reference here.
I have just watched it again, for the first time in
ages, probably, since I made it. It has no
content, it's pure, probably, the rawest, most
true, one of the most real, and authentic
pieces of work that I have ever made.
No content, no form, no story. No structure, plot.
50 seconds. A response, to a piece of music.
A shape, form, space, colour, texture.
A drawing.

OMD test from Sara Nesteruk on Vimeo.