Reflective Drawing

The Reflective Journal

I had been facing some difficulty in conveying the 'contemporary' nature of my 'automatic' drawing practice. Whenever I used the word 'automatic drawing,' it got translated to the preconceived notion of Surrealists' automatic drawings. On the other hand, I was trying to construct the automatic nature of my drawings in a more contemporary manner by bringing new meanings to these. To distinguish and make more meaningfully appropriate, I thought to create a new work title. I discovered that the word 'Autography', apart from its known meanings, has also a unique shade that is appropriate to my work; to my knowledge it was not previously applied in this manner, at least in the context of these specific drawings. That is exactly the way I relate to my work. I find these very personal, significant and true representations of myself, just like someone's signature or anautograph. And I wanted my drawings to be seen in this way. 

Task 1: Let's test it.

For the first two reflections, I wrote as a third person. Maybe I was trying to separate myself from Jamal and I thought it will sound better...! But in fact, it didn't! And I changed it back to normal for the rest of my tasks.

Close Ups Below!

Task 2:   "In the Similar Familiar World"

“Drawing is a visual language that can communicate ideas and information through images. The history of Drawing demonstrate its use as studies to investigate the personal, social, natural, scientific, spiritual, and imaginative aspects of life. In addition to the investigative nature of the sketch, drawings can become more polished works of art making sensitive statements about the subject and content depicted.”

Department of Art and Art History, Washington, http://art.georgetown.edu/drawing

After completing this task, I noticed that similar shapes of figures have been re-appearing, time to time in my work. A coincidence? or Is there a link? It was not pre-planned at all. I only noticed it while I was writing some reflections. In fact, when I looked at all of my previous and current drawings carefully, I realised that the shape of these figures have also evolved with time.

The Process in this drawings is not so different from the one that led Doug Russell to create "Entangled Worlds."
I also find myself inventing an entire new world through it.
As a narrative, this work shows the experience of a conscious being emerging from a state of strain, a slow moving entity in dark environments or a fading memory, towards a point of no return. Like the creator who produced it, the viewer or the observer is left wandering in the drawn representation of the complex metaphor.

Drawing 3   "Back to Basic Autographs" 

Comments:

Questions:

Will I just keep creating and writing about it? How long will I be able to carry on like this? It was a great experience of thinking, creating, reflecting and rethinking. I was running short on questions and got a little confused if I should continue like this for my third piece of set task. I then referred back to Gray and my notes on Reflective Practice, as I remembered we were told about structured reflective questions in one of the seminars at university. Soon I realised that again, like my art practice, I was doing the reflecting part in a more natural and organic way. It was good, too, but I realised I will have to make it more formal. The suggestive questions by Schon and Gray were the answer at this stage. My third and fourth artworks turned out to be even more fruitful in my work outcome. I was challenging myself in the mirror, through organised questions about my work. It was all about questioning oneself, not casually, but in a more formal way.

Drawing 4:  "My Drawing Glasses"

From this point onwards, I started asking some of those questions. Can I resolve the problem I have set if I continue this way? Do I like what I get when I solve this problem? Have I made the situation coherent/logical? How well did I do it? How valuable was it? What did I learn? What didn’t I learn? How did I feel about it? Why did I make a certain decision? What was the most difficult thing? What was the most satisfying thing? What would I have done differently? or do these lead to new questions or actions? 

The task was more about playing with the surface, a personal surface. In trying to make it even more personal, by initiating a dialogue. A dialogue with its texture to see the response onits three dimensional surface.

Comments:

Questions:

Drawing 5:  "The Praying Devil"

“For contemporary artists, drawing is a process more than a medium…drawing has become a metaphor for experimentation and innovation that defies any strict definition”

Michael Gova, Director, LA County Museum of Art

Comments:

Questions:

Finding Images:

In regards to these self explanatory images, this process is something that I have also used in my drawing workshops. Most of the students like it, especially those who are intrigued to find new shapes or have curiosity to find new shapes and images. And those who do not want to create images from scratch.

Drawing 6: "Masking tape Portrait"

Questions:

Talking about identity, culture and migration:

I have lived about 28 years in Pakistan, and I am living in the UK for the last 12 years. My mathematician friend argues that I am a 65% Pakistani and 35% English. Or maybe, through some documents it can be proved that I am 100% British and 100% Pakistani at the same time. But ground realities are complex and have multiple meanings and shades. To me, practically and even more so artistically, my life has been like a collage for me. For the last 12 years, the UK has been my new home. But I was able to see and live with two identities and perspectives. I lived in the UK as an outsider/tourist for a couple of initial years. Then It became my new permanent home. Then once I had a very pleasant experience. I went back for few weeks' holiday to see my family and friends in Lahore, and after two weeks, I started missing my home in Birmingham. It was a surprising realisation of the new meaning of Home. Especially when It was strongly felt for the first time. I am living in my home for the last 12 years now. I can still mange to look at my life from both perspectives. I find it very exciting and positive though. I feel many people in Lahore do not really know what multiple meanings my home in Britain really has, and at the same time, some people here do not really know what life means in Lahore. Our mind constructs positive or negative meanings for us through some information that we can process, but do we really know the real meanings until we experience something ourselves? This advantage of carrying multiple perspectives can be very helpful in life, as well as in my art practice. In art practice, we can collage, using multiple materials. Sometimes, I also feel like applying personal experiences to situations, just like a patch on to a torn page. Or a bandage on a bruise. or lots of pieces of masking tape to a situation that can turn it into an art piece. But this added dimension of multiple perspectives and experiences sometimes also makes you the 'queer' in an environment where it is not fully appreciated.

After completing the task of doing six test drawings using reflective methodology, I did get boosted and experienced a speeded up thought process in my art practice. At the same time, this was the exact point where I also realised that I have still not been able to do full justice with various aspects of the methodology. But this is what we can call a learning process. I learnt about it, explored it, tested it, but could not fully apply, due to the limited time constraint. I knew there is a lot more to it. But for me, a true personal learning, a new realisation and finding are a real outcome from my education, and this research module meant much more than anything else. Reflective Practice of my research did add a lot in my art practice and education. That is why, at this very point, I also decided to take it along as part of my future art practice to further explore it at its fullest and to get benefit from it as much as I can. From my future practice, I want to come up with an exact formula that can be applied or followed, not only in my own art practice but in general drawing and/or art practice and education.