Picking a fight

I've finally watched the documentary on Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White's respectively unique renditions on the electric guitar, music, and creativity, It Might Get Loud, last week and I wish I would have gotten to it sooner. The film opens with Jack White rigging a guitar from a block of wood, nails, wire and a glass Coca Cola bottle in a matter of a few minutes and then hooking it up to an amp and successfully producing tones from the contraption. Shortly after this sequence he talks about his view on learning, playing and if this makes sense, innovating the guitar back to its roots, defining his method as: "Pick a fight with it. And win the fight."

A few weeks before seeing It Might Get Loud I decided to attempt drawing again. Mind you, I haven't drawn with any kind of conviction in several years and left drawing and painting without much confidence. For whatever reason, I salvaged a few pieces of canvas and the scant drawing materials I had laying around collecting dust and put them to work. It took a few days to figure out how it all works but I am happy to have put the challenge in front of me.

Just this afternoon I had a great talk with fellow MFA friend Dan about drawing and one of the things that kept coming up is the idea that drawing has nothing to prove. It doesn't rely on tricks, slick materials, and most often doesn't need an intricate conceptual underpinning to work. It's just drawing. Unpretentious. Through this discussion we came to, yes, It Might Get Loud, and the getting back to basics, or some sense of truth with the lo-fi and lo tech methods. Using what you've got in materials, instinct, and energy to make something and damn does it feel great.